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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78193 ***
+
+
+     “_Familiar in their Mouths as HOUSEHOLD WORDS._”—SHAKESPEARE.
+
+
+
+
+                            HOUSEHOLD WORDS.
+                           A WEEKLY JOURNAL.
+
+
+                     CONDUCTED BY CHARLES DICKENS.
+
+
+     N^{o.} 23.]      SATURDAY, AUGUST 31, 1850.      [PRICE 2_d._
+
+
+
+
+                             A PAPER-MILL.
+
+
+Down at Dartford in Kent, on a fine bright day, I strolled through the
+pleasant green lanes, on my way to a Paper-Mill. Accustomed, mainly, to
+associate Dartford with Gunpowder Mills, and formidable tin canisters,
+illustrated in copper-plate, with the outpourings of a generous
+cornucopia of dead game, I found it pleasant to think, on a summer
+morning when all living creatures were enjoying life, that it was only
+paper in my mind—not powder.
+
+If sturdy Wat Tyler, of this very town of Dartford in Kent (Deptford had
+the honour of him once, but that was a mistake) could only have
+anticipated and reversed the precept of the pious Orange-Lodges; if he
+could only have put his trust in Providence, and kept his paper damp—for
+printing—he need never have marched to London, the captain of a hundred
+thousand men, and summarily beheaded the archbishop of Canterbury as a
+bad adviser of the young king, Richard. Then, would William Walworth,
+Lord Mayor of London (and an obsequious courtier enough, may be) never
+have struck him from his charger, unawares. Then, might the “general
+enfranchisement of all bondmen”—the bold smith’s demand—have come, a
+long time sooner than it did. Then, might working-men have maintained
+the decency and honour of their daughters, through many a hazy score of
+troubled and oppressive years, when they were yet as the clods of the
+valley, broken by the ploughshare, worried by the harrow. But, in those
+days, paper and printing for the people were not; so, Wat lay low in
+Smithfield, and Heaven knows what became of his daughter, and the old
+ferocious wheel went driving round, some centuries longer.
+
+The wild flowers were blowing in these Dartford hedges, all those many
+summertimes; the larks were singing, high in air; the trees were
+rustling as they rustle to-day; the bees went humming by; the light
+clouds cast their shadows on the verdant fields. The pleasant little
+river Darent ran the same course; sparkled in the same sun; had, then as
+now, its tiny circles made by insects; and its plumps and plashes, made
+by fish. But, the river has changed, since Wat the Blacksmith, bending
+over with his bucket, saw his grimy face, impatient of unjust and
+grievous tribute, making remonstrance with him for his long endurance.
+Now, there are indeed books in the running brooks—for they go to feed
+the Paper-Mill.
+
+Time was, in the old Saxon days, when there stood a Mill here, “held in
+ferm by a Reve,” but _that_ was not a Paper-Mill. Then, came a Nunnery,
+with kings’ fair daughters in it; then, a Palace; then, Queen Elizabeth,
+in her sixteenth year, to sojourn at the Palace two days; then, in that
+reign, a Paper-Mill. In the church yonder, hidden behind the trees, with
+many rooks discoursing in their lofty houses between me and it, is the
+tomb of Sir John Spielman, jeweller to the Queen when she had grown to
+be a dame of a shrewd temper, aged fifty or so: who “built a Paper-Mill
+for the making of writing-paper,” and to whom his Royal Mistress was
+pleased to grant a license “for the sole gathering for ten years of all
+rags, &c., necessary for the making of such paper.” There is a legend
+that the same Sir John, in coming here from Germany, to build his Mill,
+did bring with him two young lime-trees—then unknown in England—which he
+set before his Dartford dwelling-house, and which did flourish
+exceedingly; so, that they fanned him with their shadows, when he lay
+asleep in the upper story, an ancient gentleman. Now, God rest the soul
+of Sir John Spielman, for the love of all the sweet-smelling lime-trees
+that have ever greeted me in the land, and all the writing-paper I have
+ever blotted!
+
+But, as I turn down by the hawthorn hedge into the valley, a sound
+comes in my ears—like the murmuring and throbbing of a mighty giant,
+labouring hard—that would have unbraced all the Saxon bows, and shaken
+all the heads off Temple Bar and London Bridge, ever lifted to those
+heights from the always butchering, always craving, never
+sufficiently-to-be-regretted, brave old English Block. It is the noise
+of the Steam Engine. And now, before me, white and clean without, and
+radiant in the sun, with the sweet clear river tumbling merrily down
+to kiss it, and help in the work it does, is the Paper-Mill I have
+come to see!
+
+It is like the Mill of the child’s story, that ground old people young.
+Paper! White, pure, spick and span new paper, with that fresh smell
+which takes us back to school and school-books; can it ever come from
+rags like these? Is it from such bales of dusty rags, native and
+foreign, of every colour and of every kind, as now environ us, shutting
+out the summer air and putting cotton into our summer ears, that virgin
+paper, to be written on, and printed on, proceeds? We shall see
+presently. Enough to consider, at present, what a grave of dress this
+rag-store is; what a lesson of vanity it preaches. The coarse blouse of
+the Flemish labourer, and the fine cambric of the Parisian lady, the
+court dress of the Austrian jailer, and the miserable garb of the
+Italian peasant; the woollen petticoat of the Bavarian girl, the linen
+head-dress of the Neapolitan woman, the priest’s vestment, the player’s
+robe, the Cardinal’s hat, and the ploughman’s nightcap; all dwindle down
+to this, and bring their littleness or greatness in fractional portions
+here. As it is with the worn, it shall be with the wearers; but there
+shall be no dust in our eyes then, though there is plenty now. Not all
+the great ones of the earth will raise a grain of it, and nothing but
+the Truth will be.
+
+My conductor leads the way into another room. I am to go, as the rags
+go, regularly and systematically through the Mill. I am to suppose
+myself a bale of rags. I _am_ rags.
+
+Here, in another room, are some three-score women at little tables, each
+with an awful scythe-shaped knife standing erect upon it, and looking
+like the veritable tooth of time. I am distributed among these women,
+and worried into smaller shreds—torn cross-wise at the knives. Already I
+begin to lose something of my grosser nature. The room is filled with my
+finest dust, and, as gratings of me drop from the knives, they fall
+through the perforated surface of the tables into receptacles beneath.
+When I am small enough, I am bundled up, carried away in baskets, and
+stowed in immense bins, until they want me in the Boiling-Room.
+
+The Boiling-Room has enormous cauldrons in it, each with its own big
+lid, hanging to the beams of the roof, and put on by machinery when it
+is full. It is a very clean place, “coddled” by much boiling, like a
+washer-woman’s fingers, and looks as if the kitchen of the Parish Union
+had gone into partnership with the Church Belfry. Here, I am pressed,
+and squeezed, and jammed, a dozen feet deep, I should think, into my own
+particular cauldron; where I simmer, boil, and stew, a long, long time.
+Then, I am a dense, tight mass, cut out in pieces like so much clay—very
+clean—faint as to my colour—greatly purified—and gradually becoming
+quite ethereal.
+
+In this improved condition, I am taken to the Cutting-Room. I am very
+grateful to the clear fresh water, for the good it has done me; and I am
+glad to be put into some more of it, and subjected to the action of
+large rollers filled with transverse knives, revolving by steam power
+upon iron beds, which favour me with no fewer than two million cuts per
+minute, though, within the memory of man, the functions of this machine
+were performed by an ordinary pestle and mortar. Such a drumming and
+rattling, such a battering and clattering, such a delight in cutting and
+slashing, not even the Austrian part of me ever witnessed before. This
+continues, to my great satisfaction, until I look like shaving lather;
+when I am run off into chambers underneath, to have my friend the water,
+from whom I am unwilling to be separated, drained out of me.
+
+At this time, my colour is a light blue, if I have indigo in me, or a
+pale fawn, if I am rags from which the dyes have been expelled. As it is
+necessary to bleach the fawn-coloured pulp (the blue being used for
+paper of that tint), and as I _am_ fawn-coloured pulp, I am placed in
+certain stone chambers, like catacombs, hermetically sealed, excepting
+the first compartment, which communicates with a gasometer containing
+manganese, vitriol, and salt. From these ingredients, a strong gas (not
+agreeable, I must say, to the sense of smell) is generated, and forced
+through all the chambers, each of which communicates with the other.
+These continue closed, if I remember right, some four-and-twenty hours,
+when a man opens them and takes to his heels immediately, to avoid the
+offensive gas that rushes out. After I have been aired a little, I am
+again conveyed (quite white now, and very spiritual indeed) to some more
+obliging rollers upstairs.
+
+At it these grinders go, “Munch, munch, munch!” like the sailor’s wife
+in MACBETH, who had chesnuts in her lap. I look, at first, as if I were
+the most delicious curds and whey; presently, I find that I am changed
+to gruel—not thin oatmeal gruel, but rich, creamy, tempting, exalted
+gruel! As if I had been made from pearls, which some voluptuous Mr.
+Emden had converted into groats!
+
+And now, I am ready to undergo my last astounding transformation, and be
+made into paper by the machine. Oh what can I say of the wonderful
+machine, which receives me, at one end of a long room, gruel, and
+dismisses me at the other, paper!
+
+Where is the subtle mind of this Leviathan lodged? It must be
+somewhere—in a cylinder, a pipe, a wheel—or how could it ever do with me
+the miracles it does! How could it receive me on a sheet of wire-gauze,
+in my gruel-form, and slide me on, gradually assuming consistency—gently
+becoming a little paper-like, a little more, a little more still, very
+paper-like, indeed—clinging to wet blankets, holding tight by other
+surfaces, smoothly ascending Witney hills, lightly coming down into a
+woolly open country, easily rolling over and under a planetary system of
+heated cylinders, large and small, and ever growing, as I proceed,
+stronger and more paper-like! How does the power that fights the wintry
+waves on the Atlantic, and cuts and drills adamantine slabs of metal
+like cheese, how does it draw me out, when I am frailest and most liable
+to tear, so tenderly and delicately, that a woman’s hand—no, even though
+I were a man, very ill and helpless, and she may nurse who loved
+me—could never touch me with so light a touch, or with a movement so
+unerring! How can I believe, even on experience, that, being of itself
+insensible, and only informed with intellect at second hand, it changes
+me, in less time than I take to tell it, into any sort of paper that is
+wanted, dries me, cuts me into lengths, becomes charged, just before
+dismissing me, with electricity, and gathers up the hair of the
+attendant-watcher, as if with horror at the mischiefs and desertions
+from the right, in which I may be instrumental! Above all, how can I
+reconcile its being mere machinery, with its leaving off when it has cut
+me into sheets, and NOT conveying me to the Exciseman in the next room,
+whom it plainly thinks a most unnatural conclusion!
+
+I am carried thither on trucks. I am examined, and my defective portions
+thrown out, for the Mill, again; I am made up into quires and reams; I
+am weighed and excised by the hundredweight; and I am ready for my work.
+Of my being made the subject of nonsensical defences of Excise duty, in
+the House of Commons, I need say nothing. All the world knows that when
+the Right Honourable the Chancellor of the Exchequer, for the time
+being, says I am only the worse by a duty of fifteen shillings per
+hundredweight, he is a Wrong Honourable, and either don’t know, or don’t
+care, anything about me. For, he leaves out of consideration all the
+vexatious, depressing, and preventing influences of Excise Duty on any
+trade, and all the extra cost and charge of packing and unpacking,
+carrying and re-carrying, imposed upon the manufacturer, and of course
+upon the public. But we must have it, in future, even with Right
+Honourables as with birds. The Chancellor of the Exchequer that can
+sing, and won’t sing, must be made to sing—small.
+
+My metempsychosis ends with the manufacture. I am rags no more, but a
+visitor to the Paper-Mill. I am a pleased visitor to see the Mill in
+such beautiful order, and the workpeople so thriving; and I think that
+my good friend the owner has reason for saying with an agreeable smile,
+as we come out upon the sparkling stream again, that he is never so
+contented, as when he is in rags.
+
+Shining up in the blue sky, far above the Paper-Mill, a mere speck in
+the distance, is a Paper Kite. It is an appropriate thing at the
+moment—not to swear by (we have enough of that already) but to hope by,
+with a devout heart. May all the Paper that I sport with, soar as
+innocently upward as the paper kite, and be as harmless to the holder as
+the kite is to the boy! May it bring, to some few minds, such fresh
+associations; and to me no worse remembrances than the kite that once
+plucked at my own hand like an airy friend. May I always recollect that
+paper has a mighty Duty, set forth in no Schedule of Excise, and that
+its names are love, forbearance, mercy, progress, scorn of the Hydra
+Cant with all its million heads!
+
+So, back by the green lanes, and the old Priory—a farm now, and none the
+worse for that—and away among the lime-trees, thinking of Sir John.
+
+
+
+
+                          CHEERFUL ARITHMETIC.
+
+
+“Competition is fast crushing us!” the tradesman exclaims as he drives
+you out to his elegant villa behind his seventy-guinea gelding. “Wheat
+at forty shillings a quarter is ruin!” groans the farmer, while dallying
+with his champagne glass. “_We_ are all going to the workhouse.”—“A
+diamond necklace, my dear?” replies the mill-owner to a lovely
+Lancashire witch, whose smile is on other occasions law—“What? two
+hundred pounds for a bauble, while calico is only three farthings a
+yard, and cotton-spinning on the brink of bankruptcy. Impossible!”
+Should these gentlemen ever meet it is ten to one that on comparing
+notes they resolve unanimously that the whole country is going to the
+dogs; but it is also ten to one that this resolution is passed at a
+public dinner to which they have each cheerfully contributed
+one-pound-one: besides another guinea to the occasion of the feast:—some
+plethoric, bloated, routine charity.
+
+Considering their patriotic despondency in regard to the utterly
+hopeless condition of the nation, it is wonderful to observe the
+contented complacency with which these gentlemen eat their filberts and
+sip their claret. Neither is this stoic philosophy confined to them
+alone. All sorts of predicted want and impending misery are borne with
+exemplary fortitude by all sorts of Englishmen. The skilful artisan
+seldom allows a week to pass without deploring the inadequacy of wages;
+but, although he manages to get a good Sunday’s dinner some fifty times
+a year, and once or twice in the twelvemonth indulges his family with a
+healthful pleasure trip in the country, he is able to scrape up a few
+pounds in the savings’ bank. Yet if you ask him touching the state of
+things in his particular line, he will tell you that “Times never were
+so bad.” So universally is the propensity to depreciate things as they
+are, that if a commission were appointed to inquire into the state of
+the nation, their report, if derived solely from the evidence of
+well-to-do witnesses, would be lugubrious in the extreme. It is only the
+very poor who gaze cheerfully into the future; for their existence is a
+condition of hope. They apprehend nothing, for they have nothing to
+lose; whatever change fortune may bring, must be, they believe, for the
+better.
+
+Happily, better testimony, to the real condition of the industrious
+classes is producible than that dark cloud of witnesses who speak out of
+the fulness of an Englishman’s privilege—grumbling. That testimony has
+been lucidly sifted, and was adduced by Mr. G. R. Porter at the recent
+meeting of the British Association in Edinburgh. It consisted—in proof
+of the well-being and continued progress of our country—of a comparison
+between the income tax returns in respect of incomes derived from trades
+and professions in 1812, and the like returns in 1848, excluding from
+the former period the incomes below one hundred and fifty pounds; which,
+under the existing law, are allowed to pass untaxed. The total amount
+thus assessed, after deducting exemptions, was, in 1812, about
+twenty-one millions and a quarter; while, in 1848, the amount was nearly
+fifty-seven millions; showing an increase, in thirty-six years, of about
+thirty-five millions and three-quarters, or one hundred and sixty-eight
+per cent.; being at the rate of upwards of four and a half per cent.,
+yearly:—an increase very nearly three-fold greater than the increase
+during the same period of the population of Great Britain; where, alone,
+the income tax flourishes in full bloom.
+
+But how has this three-fold prosperity been distributed? Have the rich
+grown richer, and the poor, poorer; or has Fortune taken off her bandage
+and rewarded honest industry, with a discriminating hand? Have the bulk
+of the people shared in the productive wealth which thirty-six years
+have accumulated? In order to answer these questions, Mr. Porter entered
+into a series of elaborate and interesting calculations, which prove the
+pleasing fact that the great progressive wealth _has_ been shared among
+the middle and working classes.
+
+He found that the returns of 1812 as well as those of 1848 gave the sums
+assessed to Income Tax in various classes; and, for the purpose of his
+examination, he distinguished the incomes thus given:—those between one
+hundred and fifty pounds and five hundred pounds; those between five
+hundred pounds and one thousand pounds; incomes between one thousand
+pounds and two thousand pounds; incomes between two thousand pounds and
+five thousand pounds; and those above five thousand pounds. Adhering
+strictly to these distinctions, Mr. Porter perceived, in 1848, a
+positive increase in incomes between one hundred and fifty and five
+hundred pounds per annum, of thirteen millions seven hundred thousand
+pounds, over the incomes assessed in 1812. Between five hundred pounds
+and one thousand pounds per annum, the increase since 1812 has been five
+millions. On incomes between one thousand pounds and two thousand
+pounds, and incomes between two thousand pounds and five thousand
+pounds, there is an increase of upwards of four millions respectively;
+while in the highest class, which includes all incomes above five
+thousand pounds per annum, the increase is found to be no more than
+eight millions and three-quarters. Comparing the highest with the lowest
+class, the increase has been greater in the lowest by nearly five
+millions—or fifty-six per cent.
+
+This improvement in circumstances, however, descends to no lower a class
+of society than persons in the receipt of at least one hundred and fifty
+pounds per annum. It was necessary to dig a little lower in the strata
+of private circumstances, in order to show the progress of wealth among
+the working classes; and Mr. Porter had recourse to the returns from
+savings’ banks; these being chiefly used by the humbler orders. From
+data thus derived it was ascertained, that, while the deposits in
+England, Wales, and Ireland, proportioned to the whole population,
+amounted in 1831 to twelve shillings and eightpence per head; in 1848
+they had risen to twenty shillings and eleven-pence per individual. The
+largest amount of these savings occurred in 1846; when they reached, in
+England alone, to more than twenty-six millions and three-quarters, and
+in the three Kingdoms, to more than thirty-one millions seven hundred
+thousand pounds, being equal to twenty-four shillings per head on the
+population of England, Wales, and Ireland, and ten shillings and one
+penny per head on that of Scotland.[1]
+
+Footnote 1:
+
+  The comparative smallness of the deposits in Scotland arises from two
+  causes: first, the system of allowing interest upon very small sums
+  deposited in private and joint-stock banks; and, secondly, the more
+  recent connexion of savings’ banks with the Government in that
+  division of the kingdom. Hence, there is no reason for supposing that
+  the labouring-classes of Scotland are less saving than those of
+  England or Ireland.
+
+The exceeding moderation of this estimate will be observed when we
+mention another description of savings’ banks which Mr. Porter has taken
+no account of—we mean Friendly Societies. Of these, there are fourteen
+thousand in Great Britain, regularly enrolled according to Act of
+Parliament, consisting of one million six hundred thousand members, with
+a gross annual revenue of two millions eight hundred thousand, and
+accumulated capital amounting to six millions four hundred thousand
+pounds sterling. To this must be added the capital belonging to
+unenrolled benefit societies (exclusive of those in Ireland), which has
+been estimated at a greater amount than those which exist “as the Act
+directs;” namely, at nine millions sterling, belonging to two millions
+and a half of members. It is indeed a most gratifying proof of the
+prudential, and therefore moral, as well as pecuniary advance which this
+country has made during the past thirty years, that half our labouring
+male population belong to Friendly Societies. The operative classes of
+Great Britain alone possess, at this moment, capital in savings’ banks
+and friendly societies, the total of which reaches the enormous sum of
+forty-two millions of money. How very like national ruin _this_ looks!
+
+In further proof of the greater distribution of means among the humbler
+than the higher orders, we can turn once more to Mr. Porter, who assures
+us that in proportion as the savings of the industrious poor have
+augmented, the dividends received at the Bank by the “comfortable” and
+the rich have decreased.
+
+The test of the dividend-books of the Bank of England, to which Mr.
+Porter next brought his calculations, varies essentially from that
+afforded by the progress of savings’ banks; inasmuch as it excludes all
+evidence of actual saving or accumulation, while it offers a strictly
+comparative view of such saving as between different classes of the
+community. The accounts furnished to Parliament by the Bank of the
+number of persons entitled to dividends upon portions of the public
+debt, divide the fund-holders into ten classes, according to the amount
+of which they are so entitled. Mr. Porter contrasted the numbers in each
+class as they stood on the 5th of April and 5th of July of the years
+1831 and 1848, respectively. He then went on to show, that there has
+been a very large addition between 1831 and 1848 to the number of
+persons receiving under five pounds at each payment of dividends, and a
+small increase upon the number receiving between five pounds and ten
+pounds, while, with the exception of the largest holders—those whose
+dividends exceed two thousand pounds at each payment, and of whom there
+has been an increase of five—every other class has experienced a
+considerable decrease in its numbers. There has been a diminution of
+more than Eight per cent. in the numbers receiving between three hundred
+pounds and five hundred pounds; of Twelve and a half per cent. of those
+receiving between five hundred pounds and one thousand pounds; and of
+more than Twenty per cent. among holders of stock yielding dividends
+between one thousand pounds and two thousand pounds; this would seem
+conclusively to prove that, at least as respects this mode of disposing
+of accumulations, there is not any reason to believe that the already
+rich are acquiring greater wealth at the expense of the rest of the
+community.
+
+All evidence proves, then, that the great accession of wealth which has
+been accumulated in this country during the past thirty years, has been
+most distributed amongst the middle classes. The natural effect of a
+change from agricultural to manufacturing industry—a change which has
+come over this country during the roll of a single century—is to
+increase the wealth of the manufacturing and trading elements of the
+community, in proportion as these are called into activity. The “great
+fortunes” of the old time were nobles and land-holders; the millionaires
+of to-day are merchants, bankers, and mill-owners. Forty years ago a
+rich retail tradesman was a rarity; his dealings with the wholesale
+trade were chiefly carried on by means of bills at long dates, in which
+large sums were included for risk and interest; charges which decreased
+his profits, and increased the price of all articles to the consumer.
+Now the more frequent rule amongst retailers is prompt payment,
+discounts in their own favour, and affluence. In our “nation of
+shopkeepers,” it is industry which has prospered and had its reward.
+
+Turning from the British Association to the Poor-Law Board—from Mr.
+Porter to Mr. Baines—we shall see that in the scramble for wealth,
+pauperism itself has benefited; that, in fact, the highest grades in the
+scale of society have benefited as little as the very lowest. It is true
+that in the progress of accumulation by manufactures, the necessity of
+bringing large masses of operatives into confined _foci_, and of
+providing work for them at all times and seasons, has caused temporary
+spasms of poverty, that have occasionally almost defied relief; but
+despite the rapid increase of the population, the ranks of what may be
+called permanent pauperism have not been augmented. Consequently the
+increased wealth of the country has descended even to the lowest ranks
+of the people. In the year 1813, when the population of England and
+Wales was only ten millions, the sum expended for the relief of the poor
+amounted to six millions and a half sterling. From the return of the
+Poor-Law Board, now before us, it appears that during the year which
+ended on Lady Day, 1849, and with a population in England and Wales of
+one-third more—or nearly fifteen millions—the exactions for poors’-rates
+amounted to no more than five millions, seven hundred and ninety-two
+thousand, nine hundred and sixty-three pounds—three-quarters of a
+million less than was drawn for the pauperism of 1813. The poor have
+ceased to regard the rich, as a class, as their natural enemies. We hear
+no more, now, of a “grinding oligarchy.”
+
+Besides the decrease of poor rates, other taxes have diminished. Let the
+three grumblers with whom we started be pleased to remember that, no
+longer ago than 1815, when war had done its worst on the lives and
+fortunes of our fathers, they were taxed at the enormous rate of five
+pounds four shillings and ten pence a head to each individual of the
+population, from the centegenarian to the latest born baby; while we, in
+this day and generation of “ruin,” pay per head, only fifty shillings
+and eleven-pence, or scarcely one-half.
+
+It is the strength and safeguard of the English nation, that its most
+prominent elements are industry and commerce; for, tending as they do,
+to the general dissemination, as well as to the general accumulation of
+wealth, they effect a fusion of interests—a union of classes, and a
+dependence of each upon the others—which is true national power. At the
+moment at which we write, we learn from local sources of information,
+the accuracy of which we have never had occasion to question, that
+skilled labour of nearly every kind is in demand in the manufacturing
+districts; and that all sorts of capable “hands” can have work.
+Everything indicates improvement. If, indeed, our friends the Croakers
+will only look their phantom “Ruin” boldly in the face, his gaunt form
+will soon assume the smiling semblance of Prosperity.
+
+
+
+
+                          AN EMIGRANT AFLOAT.
+
+
+I knew very little of the sea when I determined to emigrate. Like most
+emigrants, I thought beforehand more of the dangers than of the
+disagreeables of this voyage; but found, when actually at sea, that its
+disagreeables seemed more formidable than its dangers. I shall describe
+the voyage, in order that those who follow me may know precisely what it
+is that they have to encounter, satisfied as I am, that nothing will
+tend more to conduce to the comforts of the emigrant at sea, than his
+being able to take a full and accurate measure of its disagreeable as
+well as its agreeable accompaniments, before stepping on board.
+
+It was late in the afternoon of a bright May day, when the Seagull, 480
+tons register, and bound for Quebec, spread her wings to the wind, after
+having been towed out of the harbour of Greenock. A gentle breeze
+carried her smoothly by the point of Gourock, the Holy Loch, Dunoon, and
+other places familiar to the tourist on the noble Frith of Clyde. We
+were off the neat little town of Largs, when the shadows of evening
+thickened around us. I was one of more than a hundred steerage
+passengers, most of whom soon afterwards went below for the night, many
+with heavy hearts, thinking that they had seen the last glimpses of
+their native land.
+
+I remained long enough on deck to perceive the approach of a marked
+change in the weather. We were still landlocked, when the wind veered
+round to the west, directly ahead of us. It increased so rapidly in
+violence, that by the time we were off Brodick, in the Island of Arran,
+it was blowing more than half a gale. As we tacked to and fro to gain
+the open sea, the vessel laboured heavily, and I soon felt sufficiently
+squeamish to descend and seek refuge in my berth. Here a scene awaited
+me for which I was but little prepared. With very few exceptions, all
+below were far advanced in sea-sickness. Some were groaning in their
+berths; others were lying upon the floor, in a semi-torpid state; and
+others, again, were retching incessantly. What a contrast was the
+Seagull then, to the neat, tempting picture she presented when lying
+quietly in dock, and when, as I paced her white, dry, warm, sunny decks,
+visions filled my mind of the pleasant days at sea before me, when,
+reclining on the cordage, beneath the shelter of the bulwarks, I could
+read the live-long day, whilst the stout ship sped merrily on her
+voyage. Delightful anticipations! Let no one be extravagant in forming
+them, unless he has a preference for disappointment. My faith in the
+romance of the sea was greatly shaken by my first night’s experiences on
+board, and it soon received a fatal blow from the commotion which was
+being gradually engendered within my own frame, and which, at length,
+resulted in a catastrophe. I could not sleep, for as the gale increased,
+so did the noises within and without. I could hear the heavy wind
+whistling mournfully through the damp, tight-drawn cordage, and the
+waves breaking in successive showers on the deck overhead. It made my
+flesh creep, too, to hear the water trickling by my very ear, as it
+rushed along outside the two-inch plank which (pleasing thought) was all
+that separated me from destruction. As the storm gained upon us, the
+ship laboured more and more heavily, until, at length, with each lurch
+which she made, everything moveable in the steerage rolled about from
+side to side on the floor. Pots and pans, trunks, boxes, and pieces of
+crockery kept up a most noisy dance for the entire night, their
+respective owners being so ill as to be utterly indifferent to the fate
+of their property. In the midst of the horrid din, I could distinguish
+the distressing groan of the strong man prostrated by sea-sickness, the
+long-drawn sigh and scarcely audible complaint of the woman, and the
+sickly wail of the neglected child; and, that nothing might be wanting
+to heighten the horrors of the scene, we were all this time in perfect
+darkness, every light on board having been extinguished for hours.
+
+Morning was far advanced as I fell into a fitful and feverish sleep. On
+awaking, I found all as still as before leaving port. My
+fellow-passengers were all on deck; and I hurried up after them to
+ascertain the cause of the change. It was soon explained. The gale had,
+at length, become so violent, that the ship had put back for shelter,
+and was now lying quietly at anchor in the beautiful bay of Rothesay.
+
+But what a change had, in the meantime, taken place in the appearance of
+my fellow-passengers. The buoyant air of yesterday had disappeared; and
+those who were then in ruddy health, now looked pale and woebegone. Such
+was the effect of our night’s prostration.
+
+For my own part, I began to feel that I had already had enough of the
+sea, and heartily wished myself safe ashore on the banks of the St.
+Lawrence. I had formerly experienced a sort of enthusiasm in listening
+to such songs, as “The sea, the sea, the open sea!” “A life on the ocean
+wave!” &c., &c. But had anyone on board now struck up either of them, I
+should assuredly have set him down for a maniac. We remained for two
+days in Rothesay Bay, waiting for a change of wind, during which time we
+recruited our spirits—and water, a fresh stock of which we shipped. It
+was not, therefore, without some of the lightness of heart, which had
+characterised our first start, that, on the morning of the third day, we
+made way again for the New World. But it seemed as if we were never to
+get rid of the coast, for we were overtaken by a dead calm off Ailsa,
+causing delay for ten days more sweltering under a hot sun, within half
+a mile of that lonely and stupendous rock. On the evening of the second
+day a gentle breeze from the northeast carried us out of the Channel,
+and next morning found us with all sail set, speeding westward, with the
+Irish coast on our lee.
+
+We were a very mixed company in the steerage. Some had been farmers, and
+were going out to try their hands at agriculture in the wilds of Canada.
+Others had been servants, predial and domestic, and were on their way in
+search of better fortunes in the New World, although they had not yet
+made up their minds as to the precise manner in which they were to woo
+the fickle dame. We had a brace of wives on board who were proceeding to
+join their husbands in Canada, who had prudently preceded their
+families, and prepared for their advent, by constructing a home for them
+in the woods. There was an old man with a slender capital, who was
+emigrating at an advanced period of life, that he might make a better
+provision for his grandson, a lusty youth of about seventeen, of whom he
+seemed doatingly fond. We had also amongst us a large family from
+Edinburgh, of that class of people who have “seen better days,” who were
+hurrying across the Atlantic in the hope of at least catching a glimpse
+of them again. Besides the father and mother, there were several sons
+and two daughters, the eldest son having duly qualified himself for the
+honour of writing W. S. after his name—a nominal appendage which he
+would find of far less value to him than a good axe in the woods. We had
+a clergyman, too, of the poorer class, in worldly circumstances, who had
+been accredited as a missionary to the Canadian wilds. I must not
+overlook four or five infants, the precise ownership of which I never
+thoroughly traced, they were so tumbled about from one to another; and
+which generally of nights favoured us with prolonged choruses of the
+most enlivening description.
+
+Thus mixed and assorted, the first few days passed off agreeably enough
+to such as were proof against a relapse of sea-sickness. When it was not
+blowing too strong, the deck was a pleasant place for exercise, which is
+necessary to comfort, as it is generally cold and disagreeable at sea,
+except when calm, and then one is annoyed, whilst being broiled, at the
+thought of making no progress. The chief occupation on board, seemed to
+be that of cooking and eating. The cooking apparatus for the steerage
+was on deck; each family, and each individual who had no family, was
+continually cooking for themselves. As the accommodation for cooking was
+not very ample for upwards of a hundred passengers, there was scarcely
+an hour of the day between sunrise and sunset, that was not witness to
+the progress of some culinary operations—men, women, and children were
+constantly appearing and disappearing at the hatchways with pots,
+saucepans, kettles, and other utensils; and it was not long ere some
+began to fear, having made but little account of the voracity of
+appetite engendered by convalescence after sea-sickness, that their
+stock of provisions would prove rather scanty for the voyage.
+
+Perhaps the greatest privation to which the poor steerage passenger is
+subjected, is in connection with the water which he uses for drinking
+and in some of his cooking processes. As the voyage may be protracted
+beyond reasonable calculation, an extra supply of fresh water is or
+should be laid in to meet such an emergency. To preserve this extra
+stock from becoming impure, different devices are resorted to,—such as
+impregnating it with lime, large quantities of which are thrown into
+each cask. Were this the case only with the extra stock, the comfort of
+the passenger might, for a time at least, be unimpaired in this respect;
+but the misfortune is, that all the water for steerage consumption,
+immediate and contingent, is treated in the same way; so that the
+emigrant is scarcely out of harbour, when he finds the water of which he
+makes use not only extremely unpalatable to drink, but in such a state
+as to spoil every decoction into which it enters. Fancy a cup of tea
+without cream, but with sugar and coarse lime, in about equal
+proportions, to flavour it. The most unquestionable sloe leaves might,
+under such circumstances, pass for young hyson, and the worst of chicory
+for the best of coffee. This sorely discomfited the more elderly of the
+females on board, whose cup of life was poisoned by very thin mortar.
+
+On the fifth day out, after gaining the open sea, we were overtaken by a
+tremendous gale, which did us considerable damage. I was standing near
+the forecastle, when a heavy block dropped from aloft with terrific
+force at my feet. I had scarcely recovered from my fright, when crash
+after crash over head, making me run under the jolly boat in terror. For
+a moment afterwards all was still, and then arose a tremendous uproar on
+board, officers giving all sorts of directions at once, and sailors
+running about, and jumping over each other to obey them. When I ventured
+to peep out from my place of safety, a sad spectacle of wreck and ruin
+presented itself to me. On our lee, masts, ropes, spars, and sails were
+floating alongside on the uneasy waters. Our fore-top-mast had given
+way, and in falling overboard, had dragged the maintop-gallant mast and
+the greater part of our bowsprit along with it. Sails and rigging went
+of course with the wreck, which was provoking, as the wind was a-beam
+and so far favourable. We soon hauled the wreck on board, however, and
+in the course of two or three days, with the aid of the carpenter, the
+dismantled ship was re-rigged in a very creditable manner.
+
+We had scarcely yet put to rights, when a vessel made up to us bound
+westward like ourselves. What a sight to the lonely wanderers on the
+ocean is a ship at sea!—it seems like a herald coming to you from the
+world, from which you are seemingly cut off for ever. It is a sight
+which must be seen to be appreciated. She was labouring heavily on our
+lee, and every now and then her whole keel became visible to us. To
+this, one of the passengers very innocently directed attention, much to
+the horror of the second mate, who smartly rebuked the offender; it
+being, he said, not only indelicate, but perilous to own having seen the
+keel of any ship under canvas. We all, of course, admitted the
+reasonableness of this caution, and strictly observed it.
+
+The ship was no sooner repaired, than the wind, which had abated a
+little, seemed to redouble its fury. We were now in the midst of a
+terrible storm, and great was the commotion in the steerage. Some moaned
+in pain—others screamed occasionally in terror—whilst one old lady was
+constantly inquiring in a most piteous voice, if there was not one good
+man on board, for whose sake the rest might be saved. On making the
+inquiry of a rough, but good-natured tar, he rebuked her scepticism, and
+referred her to the minister. We had two sailors on board, named Peter.
+One was an ordinary looking mortal, from whom the other was
+distinguished by the appellation of Peter the Leerer, a name having
+reference to the extraordinary facial phenomena which he exhibited. On
+the point of his nose was an enormous wart, the counterpart of which had
+taken possession of his chin. He had likewise one, but of smaller
+dimensions, on either cheek, only wanting one on his forehead, to
+complete the diagram; a want, which, for most of the voyage, was
+providentially made up by a large pimple, which underlay his bump of
+benevolence. Add to this an enormous quantity of wiry red hair, and a
+portentous squint, and you may form some conception of the goblin in
+question. He was the terror of all the children on board, and came
+regularly into the steerage in the morning, begging a “toothful” from
+the passengers. We never saw his tooth, but it must have been very
+large, as what he meant by the term was a glass of raw spirits, to the
+strength of which he was stoically indifferent, so that it was above
+proof. It appeared that he now thought that the time had come for making
+some sort of return for sundry gifts of this nature. He appeared amongst
+us, as the storm was at its height, and confidentially informed us that,
+unless some of the “canvas” were immediately taken down, the ship “had
+not another hour’s life in her.” To describe the confusion and dismay
+occasioned by this announcement is impossible. Nobody questioned Peter’s
+judgment, who stood looking at us as if he thought that one good turn
+deserved another. But every one was too much frightened to think of
+rewarding him for his kindness. Some ran at once upon deck to take
+immediate advantage of the boats—the women all screamed together—and we
+had a pretty tolerable taste of the horrors to be witnessed on the eve
+of a shipwreck. The hubbub at length ended in the appointment of a
+deputation to wait upon the captain, and solicit him to shorten sail.
+The deputation went upon its mission, but soon afterwards returned from
+the cabin to their constituents with the report that they had been
+politely requested by the functionary in question to mind their own
+business. The storm, however, gradually abated, and things and persons
+resumed their ordinary aspect.
+
+Great was the anxiety evinced every time the log was thrown, to
+ascertain our rate of sailing, and at noon of each day, to know our
+daily run, and our precise locality on the terraqueous globe. It is
+difficult for an emigrant to reconcile himself to less than eight or
+nine knots an hour. He may put up with seven, or even six, provided the
+ship is in her direct course, but he regards everything below that as a
+justifiable ground of murmuring and complaint. Sometimes it is the ship
+that is wrong, and sometimes the captain, sometimes the rigging, and at
+other times, all is wrong together. But to do the emigrant justice, if
+he is in the surly mood when he is making but little progress, he makes
+amends for his ill-humour when the vessel is making a good run. We, one
+day, made but about twenty miles, and I apprehended a mutiny. On another
+we made two hundred, and nothing could exceed the hilarity and
+good-humour of those on board. At one time, the Seagull was the merest
+tub, a disgrace to her owners, and to the mercantile navy of the
+kingdom. At another, she was one of the best vessels afloat; the captain
+one of the best sailors on the sea; and the crew the cleverest set of
+fellows in the world. But all this time it was the same ship, the same
+captain, and the same crew. The diversity of opinion was the result of
+extraneous circumstances which caused us at different times to take
+different points of view. If the weather was favourable, and we made
+good way, the ship, captain, and crew, got all the honour and glory; if
+it was adverse and our progress was retarded, the ship, captain, and
+crew, had to bear all our sinister glances and ill humours. One morning,
+after we had been about ten days out, our minds were all made up that we
+were pretty near the banks of Newfoundland, when a fellow-passenger,
+evidently not very deeply versed in human nature, had the hardihood to
+inform us that he had, but the day before, seen the mate’s log book,
+from which it appeared that we were as yet but five hundred miles to the
+westward of the Irish coast. I can scarcely understand to this day, how
+it was that he escaped being thrown overboard.
+
+We had two men on board, the very antipodes of each other. The one was a
+colossal bachelor, who was never ill; the other a diminutive member of a
+large family, who was never well. They resembled each other only in one
+point—that they both ate prodigiously. The only account the bachelor
+could give of himself was that he was going out to Canada to saw the big
+trees. He had, in fact, been engaged as a sawyer to proceed to the banks
+of the Ottawa, there to prosecute his avocation in connection with some
+of the large timber establishments, which are situated far up that noble
+river. He was so powerful a fellow, that a Yankee passenger declared “he
+would have only to look at a tree to bring it down.” He lived, whilst on
+board, on nothing but oatmeal porridge, a large goblet-full of which,
+after first making it himself, he devoured regularly on deck four times
+a day. As to the little man, he lived, as regularly, on mashed potatoes,
+enriched with butter and melted cheese; and his meals were invariably
+followed by fits of sea-sickness which he considered quite
+unaccountable. His habits became at length such a scandal to all on
+board, that the doctor was compelled, by the force of public opinion, to
+order him to eat less. He had remained below from our time of starting,
+until the day we made land, when he appeared on deck for the first time,
+and was for the first time seen without his nightcap.
+
+When we had been about three weeks at sea an incident occurred which
+appalled us all, and elicited the sympathies of everyone for one of the
+unfortunate sufferers. I have already alluded to the old man, who was
+emigrating with his only grandson, whom he wished to see comfortably
+settled in life, ere his eyes were sealed in death. The youth was one of
+several on board who were fond, after having been a few days at sea, of
+climbing the rigging, and exposing themselves to a variety of
+unnecessary risks. He had been frequently warned, with the rest, against
+the consequences which might ensue, but disregarded the advice. One day,
+whilst out upon the bowsprit, he missed his hold and dropped into the
+water. The alarm of “man overboard” was instantly raised, and, to save
+him, the ship was immediately hove to; but he had disappeared, and
+although we remained for an hour upon the spot, we never caught a
+glimpse of him again. One of the men near him at the time said that, on
+reaching the water, he was struck on the head by the cut-water of the
+ship, which was then running about eight knots an hour. The blow stunned
+him, and he sank like a stone. The poor old man was inconsolable, and
+gradually sank into a state of vacant imbecility; and, on landing, found
+a home in the Lunatic Asylum at Quebec.
+
+Let no one dream that the sea, particularly on board an emigrant ship,
+is the place for reading or study. It is either too cold, when there is
+the slightest breeze, or too hot when it is calm: it is too noisy at all
+times. Happy is he who, under such circumstances, has a resource against
+_ennui_ in his own reflections. Having a clergyman on board, we had
+divine service regularly on the Sundays. When it was rough, the
+assemblage took place between decks in the steerage; but when fine we
+were convened upon deck. Sailors have a dread, not exactly of clergymen
+in the abstract, but of clergymen on board. A blackbird on the rigging
+as the ship is about to start, or a clergyman on board, is equally, in
+their estimation, a token of ill luck; and some of the crew pitied us
+for anticipating anything else, under the circumstances.
+
+If there is one thing more disagreeable than a storm at sea, it is a
+calm. It is all very well for a steamer, which can then make her way
+nobly over the waters; but, the annoyance and tedium on board a sailing
+vessel are indescribable. In all our calms we were surrounded by
+sea-gulls and other marine birds. Some of them ventured so close as to
+be shot; others we endeavoured to catch by means of baited hooks tied to
+a stick, which was attached to a long cord; but they were too wary for
+us, for, after closely examining it, they fought shy of the temptation.
+
+On nearing the banks of Newfoundland we were constantly immersed in
+fogs. One morning, whilst thus situated, the temperature of the sea
+suddenly lowered, which the captain interpreted into an indication of
+icebergs not being far off, and a sharp look out was ordered to be kept.
+It was scarcely noon ere we were in imminent peril of running at full
+speed against one. We owed our escape to a passenger, who was on the
+lookout, and who called the attention of one of the sailors to something
+ahead of us. “Starboard—starboard hard!”—cried he at once to the man at
+the wheel. The helm was scarcely turned ere we glided rapidly by the
+frozen mass, which gleamed like a huge emerald in the faint and
+struggling sunlight. We passed so close to it that I could have leaped
+upon it with ease. We might as well have run against a whinstone rock as
+encountered this floating peril, at the rate at which we were then
+gliding through the water.
+
+Whilst crossing the banks the ship was frequently hove to for soundings.
+We took advantage of such occasions to fish for cod; nor were we
+unsuccessful, for we, altogether, hauled on board several dozen fish of
+a large size. The delight with which we feasted upon our prey, after
+some weeks’ experience of nothing but salt meat, I leave the reader to
+imagine. It was during one of our angling attempts that an incident
+occurred, which would have seemed as incredible to me as it may now do
+the reader, had I not been an eye-witness of it. One of the crew, whilst
+fishing for a few minutes, with a line belonging to a passenger, hooked
+a very large fish, which dropped into the water in the act of being
+hauled on board. The man, determined on securing his prize, without a
+moment’s hesitation, leaped overboard after it; and, seizing the half
+insensible fish in his arms, held it there until he was hauled on board,
+with his extraordinary booty. In explanation of this, it should be known
+that the gills of a cod-fish, when out of the water, swell considerably,
+so as to prevent it from properly performing their functions when
+restored, even alive, to its native element. It was whilst the fish in
+question was in the act of thus “coming to” that the man seized and
+secured it.
+
+On the banks, when the night was clear, we witnessed magnificent
+exhibitions of the aurora-borealis. It was generally between midnight
+and ten in the morning that the phenomenon attained the greatest
+splendour. When the whole northern sky was enveloped in a trellis-work
+of flashing wavy light, of a mingled golden, silvery pink, and blood-red
+hue.
+
+The first land we made, was Cape Breton, an island off the northern
+extremity of Nova Scotia; and between which and Newfoundland, is the
+entrance to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The bold shore of the island was
+more picturesque than inviting; but for the live-long day every
+passenger strained his eyes upon this, the first positive revelation of
+the New World to him. The delight imparted by the first sight of land,
+can only be appreciated by those who have been for weeks at sea, with
+nothing to meet the eye, day after day, but the same monotonous and
+dreary circle of waters, in the midst of which the ship seems to rest
+immoveable. From Cape Breton we stood up the Gulf, and being favoured by
+the wind, soon made the Island of Anticosti, not far from the mouth of
+the St. Lawrence. It looked like a mass of petrified guano; an illusion
+which was not disturbed by the myriads of water-fowl which hovered about
+its precipices.
+
+The Gulf of St. Lawrence has not been inaptly designated, the “vilest of
+seas.” It was our lot to have ample experience of its capricious
+humours. When almost at the mouth of the river, which expands into a
+magnificent estuary of from seventy to ninety miles in width, we were
+becalmed for two whole days. Between us and the rocky shore on our left,
+to which we were very close, lay a vessel from Belfast, crowded with
+emigrants. There was music and dancing on board; and so near were we to
+each other, that we, too, sometimes danced to the sound of her solitary
+violin. On the evening of the second day, we were suddenly overtaken by
+a furious squall, which descending the river, came upon us so
+unprepared, that much of our canvas was cut to pieces ere it could be
+taken in. In about half an hour all was comparatively tranquil again,
+but on looking for our comrade, not a vestige of her was to be seen. It
+was not for three weeks afterwards, when we heard of her total loss,
+with upwards of three hundred and fifty souls on board, that our
+dreadful suspicions respecting her, were confirmed. Next morning it blew
+very fresh; and although it was the 3rd of June, we had several heavy
+falls of snow.
+
+After beating about for two days longer in the mouth of the river, we
+were boarded by a pilot, and made way for Quebec, about four hundred
+miles up. The ascent of the stream is sometimes exceedingly tedious; as,
+when the wind is adverse, it is necessary to come to anchor at every
+turn of the tide. Thus as much time is sometimes consumed in ascending
+the river, as in crossing the Atlantic. We were more fortunate, for we
+made the quarantine ground, thirty miles below the city, in ten days.
+Under such circumstances, the sail up the river is interesting and
+agreeable. For the first hundred miles or so, it is so wide, that land
+on either side is but dimly visible. But, as the estuary narrows,
+objects on either side become more distinct. The northern shore, which
+is bold and mountainous, is replete with scenes of the most romantic
+grandeur. The southern bank being much tamer in its character, and more
+adapted for human habitations. The channel too, some distance up, is
+occasionally studded with islands, which add greatly to the interest of
+the sail.
+
+The quarantine ground of Canada is Gros Isle, between which and Quebec
+stretches the long Island of Orleans. We had scarcely dropped anchor
+when we were boarded by an officer of the Board of Health. Whilst
+ascending the river, the ship had been thoroughly cleaned, and the
+berths in the steerage white-washed. We were all passed in review before
+the functionary in question, and could have been at once permitted to
+proceed to our destination, but for one old lady, who was not exactly
+ill, but ailing; on her account we were detained until every piece of
+clothing on board had undergone a thorough ablution. We landed
+immediately in boats, and, after having been for about six weeks at sea,
+it was with inexpressible joy that I sprang ashore, for the first time,
+in the New World.
+
+Gros Isle! With what melancholy associations have the events of 1847
+encircled the name of the Canadian lazaretto! On our arrival, in a year
+when the tide of emigration was not strong, there was a little fleet
+anchored along side of it. Some of the vessels (they were all from
+Ireland), with their overloaded cargoes of human beings, had been
+already there for a month, nor was there any prospect of their being
+relieved for some weeks to come. There was an hospital for the sick; the
+accommodation ashore for such as were well, consisted of several large
+open sheds, tolerably well covered and floored. In these, meals were
+taken during the day, and beds were made for the night. Outside, the
+scene presented was picturesque, and even gay; there were nearly three
+thousand people ashore, and a universal washing of clothes of all kinds
+was going on; the water being heated by hundreds of wood fires, which
+were blazing and smoking amongst the rocks in the open air. When there
+were families, the families belonging to them washed for them; such as
+were alone had to hire the services of professional washerwomen. The
+appliances of washing are rather peculiar. Between high and low
+water-mark the island was very rocky, and the action of the water had
+here and there scooped out bowls of various sizes from the rock. Into
+them, for the most part, the hot water was poured, and in them, between
+tides, the clothes were washed. They were then spread upon the rocks, or
+hung upon the trees to dry, which gave the island a holiday look. It was
+anything, however, but a holiday time for hundreds, who were forced to
+tenant it.
+
+To our great satisfaction, we were permitted, after but one day’s
+detention, to resume our course. With wind and tide in our favour, we
+soon dropped up to the city. It was a clear and brilliant morning in
+June when we left Gros Isle, and as we made our way up the narrow
+channel between the Island of Orleans and the southern bank of the
+river, nothing could exceed the beauty of the scene, the great basin,
+into which the city juts, being visible in the distance, directly ahead
+of us, whilst the precipitous bank on either side, particularly that on
+our left, was covered with the most luxuriant vegetation, in the shade
+of which we could, every here and there, discover foaming torrents,
+dashing headlong from the country above into the river, like those
+which, after heavy rains, rush with such fury down the western bank of
+Loch Ness. On opening one of the points of the Isle Orleans, the
+cataract of Montmorency burst suddenly upon our view, looking in the
+distance like a long streak of snow amid the rich green foliage which
+imbedded it. Considerably higher up, Point Levy still projected between
+us and the city, but long before we turned it, we could see over it the
+British flag floating in the distance from the lofty battlements of Cape
+Diamond. On turning the point, the change of scene was as sudden and
+complete as any ever effected by the scenic contrivances of the stage.
+The city was at once disclosed to view, skirting the fort and crowning
+the summit of the bold rocky promontory on which it stands, its tinned
+roofs and steeples gleaming in the sunlight, as if they were cased in
+silver. Very few vessels were at the wharves, but abreast of the city
+hundreds were anchored in the middle of the stream, some getting rid of
+their ballast, and others surrounded by islands of timber, with which
+they were being loaded. The clearness of the air, the brightness of the
+sky, the merry tumble of the water, slightly ruffled by a fresh easterly
+breeze, the singular position and quaint appearance of the town, with
+its massive battlements, its glistening turrets, and its break-neck
+looking streets, zigzagging up the precipice, with the rich greenery of
+the Heights of Abraham beyond, and that of Point Levy right opposite,
+and with hundreds of vessels lying quietly at anchor on the broad
+expanse of the river, whilst the echoes reverberated to the merry
+choruses of their busy crews,—all conspired to form a picture calculated
+to make an impression upon the imagination too deep to be ever effaced.
+
+The anchor had scarcely dropped, terminating our long and weary voyage,
+when we were boarded by a Custom-House officer, and by an officer of the
+Board of Health. After another inspection, we were permitted to land;
+and it was not without many anxious reflections upon the novelty of my
+situation, that I found myself retiring that night to rest within a
+stone’s throw of the monument raised to the joint memories of Wolf and
+Montcalm.
+
+Such were the incidents of my voyage. I have set them down simply, and
+exactly as they occurred, for the purpose of presenting a true picture
+of the emigrant’s life afloat. I have since learned that, in all
+respects, ours was an average journey across the wide waste. Intending
+emigrants, therefore, who picture to themselves in bright colours the
+glories of a sea voyage, will, by reading these pages, have their dreams
+modified by some touches of reality and truth, if not entirely
+dispelled. If, however, they are adapted for success in the other
+hemisphere, they will not be daunted by the trials and inconveniences I
+have pictured.
+
+
+
+
+                         THE SISTER’S FAREWELL.
+
+
+             Dear Sister, sit beside my bed,
+               And let me see your gentle smile,
+             And let me lay my aching head
+               Upon your kindly arm awhile;
+             I shall not long be with you now,
+               My time is drawing to an end:
+             May we our spirits meekly bow,
+               And He release from suffering send.
+
+             The longed-for summer’s drawing near;
+               The wind is softer, and the sun
+             Streams down so brightly on me here,
+               It almost seems already come.
+             But now—I never more shall see
+               The fields and lanes, all gay with flowers,
+             Nor hear the murmur of the bee,
+               Nor song of birds among the bowers.
+
+             For here, no beauteous change we see
+               In nature, as the year rolls on;
+             No green bursts forth on bush and tree
+               When winter’s chilling frosts are gone.
+             No gentle flowers or odours sweet,
+               In summer cheer us as we go;
+             Nought see we but th’ unchanging street,
+               And weary passing to and fro.
+
+             The summer, though ’tis summer still,
+               Seems not the same while we are here.
+             How sweet the thought of that clear rill,
+               That trembled from the hillock near
+             To our old house! I sometimes think,
+               With my eyes closed, and half-asleep,
+             That I am lying on the brink
+               Of the old fish-pond, still, and deep.
+
+             Methinks in one of those sweet nooks,
+               Beneath the hanging willow-trees,
+             I listen to the cawing rooks
+               And busy humming of the bees.
+             And, moodily, I watch the trout
+               Make circles in the tranquil pool;
+             And watch the swallows skim about,
+               And feel the breeze so fresh and cool.
+
+             Let me awake—the dream was brief—
+               Be thankful for my sufferings here;
+             Be thankful, too, for Heaven’s relief,
+               E’en though I leave thee, sister dear.
+             Yet let me once more see you smile;
+               A Vision opens on me bright!
+             Lay your hand by me for a while—
+               And now, God bless you, love—Good Night!
+
+
+
+
+                  THE HOME OF WOODRUFFE THE GARDENER.
+
+
+                     IN EIGHT CHAPTERS.—CHAPTER IV.
+
+Fleming did what he could to find fair play for his father-in-law. He
+spoke to one and another—to the officers of the railway, and to the
+owners of neighbouring plots of ground, about the bad drainage, which
+was injuring everybody; but he could not learn that anything was likely
+to be done. The ditch—the great evil of all—had always been there, he
+was told, and people never used to complain of it. When Fleming pointed
+out that it was at first a comparatively deep ditch, and that it grew
+shallower every year, from the accumulations formed by its uneven
+bottom, there were some who admitted that it might be as well to clean
+it out; yet nobody set about it. And it was truly a more difficult
+affair now than it would have been at an earlier time. If the ditch was
+shallower, it was much wider. It had once been twelve feet wide, and it
+was now eighteen. When any drain had been flowing into it, or after a
+rainy day, the contents spread through and over the soil on each side,
+and softened it, and then the next time any horse or cow came to drink,
+the whole bank was made a perfect bog; for the poor animals, however
+thirsty, tried twenty places to find water that they could drink, before
+going away in despair. Such was the bar in the way of poor Woodruffe’s
+success with his ground. Before the end of summer, his patience was
+nearly worn out. During a showery and gleamy May and a pleasant June, he
+had gone on as prosperously as he could expect under the circumstances;
+and he confidently anticipated that a seasonable July and August would
+quite set him up. But he had had no previous experience of the
+peculiarities of ill-drained land; and the hot July and August from
+which he hoped so much did him terrible mischief. The drought which
+would have merely dried and pulverised a well-drained soil, leaving it
+free to profit much by small waterings, baked the overcharged soil of
+Woodruffe’s garden into hard hot masses of clay, amidst which his
+produce died off faster and faster every day, even though he and all his
+family wore out their strength with constant watering. He did hope, he
+said, that he should have been spared drought at least; but it seemed as
+if he was to have every plague in turn; and the drought seemed, at the
+time, to be the worst of all.
+
+One day, Fleming saw a welcome face in one of the carriages; Mr. Nelson,
+a Director of the railway, who was looking along the line to see how
+matters went. Though Mr. Nelson was not exactly the one, of all the
+Directors, whom Fleming would have chosen to appeal to, he saw that the
+opportunity must not be lost; and he entreated him to alight, and stay
+for the next train.
+
+“Eh! what?” said Mr. Nelson; “what can you want with us here? A station
+like this! Why, one has to put on spectacles to see it!”
+
+“If you would come down, Sir, I should be glad to show you....”
+
+“Well: I suppose I must.”
+
+As they were standing on the little platform, and the train was growing
+smaller in the distance, Fleming proceeded to business. He told of the
+serious complaints that were made for a distance of a few miles on
+either hand, of the clay pits, left by the railway brickmakers, to fill
+with stagnant waters.
+
+“Pho! pho! Is that what you want to say?” replied Mr. Nelson. “You need
+not have stopped me just to tell me that. We hear of those pits all
+along the line. We are sick of hearing of them.”
+
+“That does not mend the matter in this place,” observed Fleming. “I
+speak freely, Sir, but I think it my duty to say that something must be
+done. I heard, a few days ago, more than the people hereabouts
+know,—much more than I shall tell them—of the fever that has settled on
+particular points of our line; and I now assure you, Sir, that if the
+fever once gets a hold in this place, I believe it may carry us all off,
+before anything can be done. Sir, there is not one of us, within half a
+mile of the Station, that has a wholesome dwelling.”
+
+“Pho! pho! you are a croaker,” declared Mr. Nelson. “Never saw such a
+dismal fellow! Why, you will die of fright, if ever you die of
+anything.”
+
+“Then, Sir, will you have the goodness to walk round with me, and see
+for yourself what you think of things. It is not only for myself and my
+family that I speak. In an evil day, I induced my wife’s family to
+settle here, and....”
+
+“Ay! that is a nice garden,” observed Mr. Nelson, as Fleming pointed to
+Woodruffe’s land. “You are a croaker, Fleming. I declare I think the
+place is much improved since I saw it last. People would not come and
+settle here if the place was like what you say.”
+
+Instead of arguing the matter, Fleming led the way down the long flight
+of steps. He was aware that leading the gentleman among bad smells and
+over shoes in a foul bog would have more effect than any argument was
+ever known to have on his contradictious spirit.
+
+“You should have seen worse things than these, and then you would not be
+so discontented,” observed Mr. Nelson, striking his stick upon the
+hard-baked soil, all intersected with cracks. “I have seen such a soil
+as this in Spain, some days after a battle, when there were scores of
+fingers and toes sticking up out of the cracks. What would you say to
+that?—eh?”
+
+“We may have a chance of seeing that here,” replied Fleming; “if the
+plague comes,—and comes too fast for the coffin-makers,—a thing which
+has happened more than once in England, I believe.”
+
+Mr. Nelson stopped to laugh; but he certainly attended more to business
+as he went on; and Fleming, who knew something of his ways, had hopes
+that if he could only keep his own temper, this visit of the Director
+might not be without good results.
+
+In passing through Woodruffe’s garden, very nice management was
+necessary. Woodruffe was at work there, charged with ire against railway
+directors and landed proprietors, whom, amidst the pangs of his
+rheumatism, he regarded as the poisoners of his land and the bane of his
+fortunes; while, on the other hand, Mr. Nelson, who had certainly never
+been a market-gardener, criticised and ridiculed everything that met his
+eye. What was the use of such a toolhouse as that?—big enough for a
+house for them all. What was the use of such low fences?—of such high
+screens?—of making the walks so wide?—sheer waste!—of making the beds so
+long one way, and so narrow another?—of planting or sowing this and
+that?—things that nobody wanted. Woodruffe had pushed back his hat, in
+preparation for a defiant reply, when Fleming caught his eye, and, by a
+good-tempered smile, conveyed to him that they had an oddity to deal
+with. Allan, who had begun by listening reverently, was now looking from
+one to another, in great perplexity.
+
+“What is that boy here for, staring like a dunce? Why don’t you send him
+to school? You neglect a parent’s duty if you don’t send him to school.”
+
+Woodruffe answered by a smile of contempt, walked away, and went to work
+at a distance.
+
+“That boy is very well taught,” Fleming said, quietly. “He is a great
+reader, and will soon be fit to keep his father’s accounts.”
+
+“What does he stare in that manner for, then? I took him for a dunce.”
+
+“He is not accustomed to hear his father called in question, either as a
+gardener or a parent.”
+
+“Pho! pho! I might as well have waited, though, till he was out of
+hearing. Well, is this all you have to show me? I think you make a great
+fuss about nothing.”
+
+“Will you walk this way?” said Fleming, turning down towards the osier
+beds, without any compassion for the gentleman’s boots or olfactory
+nerves. For a long while Mr. Nelson affected to admire the reeds, and
+water-flags, and marsh-blossoms, declared the decayed vegetation to be
+peat soil, very fine peat, which the ladies would be glad of for their
+heaths in the flower-garden,—and thought there must be good fowling here
+in winter. Fleming quietly turned over the so-called peat with a stick,
+letting it be seen that it was a mere dung-heap of decayed rushes, and
+wished Mr. Nelson would come in the fowling season, and see what the
+place was like.
+
+“The children are merry enough, however,” observed the gentleman. “They
+can laugh here, much as in other places. I advise you to take a lesson
+from them, Fleming. Now, don’t you teach them to croak.”
+
+The laughter sounded from the direction of the old brick-ground; and
+thither they now turned. Two little boys were on the brink of a pit, so
+intent on watching a rat in the water and on pelting it with stones,
+that they did not see that anybody was coming to disturb them. In answer
+to Mr. Nelson’s question, whether they were vagrants, and why vagrants
+were permitted there, Fleming answered that the younger one—the
+pale-faced one—was his little brother-in-law; the other—
+
+“Ay, now, you will be telling me next that the pale face is the fault of
+this place.”
+
+“It certainly is,” said Fleming. “That child was chubby enough when he
+came.”
+
+“Pho, pho! a puny little wretch as ever I saw—puny from its birth, I
+have no doubt of it. And who is the other—a gipsy?”
+
+“He looks like it,” replied Fleming. On being questioned, Moss told that
+the boy lived near, and he had often played with him lately. Yes, he
+lived near, just beyond those trees; not in a house, only a sort of
+house the people had made for themselves. Mr. Nelson liked to lecture
+vagrants, even more than other people; so Moss was required to show the
+way, and his dark-skinned playfellow was not allowed to skulk behind.
+
+Moss led his party on, over the tufty hay-coloured grass, skipping from
+bunch to bunch of rushes, round the osier beds, and at last straight
+through a clump of alders, behind whose screen now appeared the house,
+as Moss had called it, which the gipsies had made for themselves. It was
+the tilt of a waggon, serving as a tent. Nobody was visible but a woman,
+crouching under the shadow of the tent, to screen from the sun that
+which was lying across her lap.
+
+“What is that that she’s nursing? Lord bless me! Can that be a child?”
+exclaimed Mr. Nelson.
+
+“A child in the fever,” replied Fleming.
+
+“Lord bless me!—to see legs and arms hang down like that!” exclaimed the
+gentleman: and he forthwith gave the woman a lecture on her method of
+nursing—scolded her for letting the child get a fever—for not putting it
+to bed—for not getting a doctor to it—for being a gipsy, and living
+under an alder clump. He then proceeded to inquire whether she had
+anybody else in the tent, where her husband was, whether he lived by
+thieving, how they would all like being transported, whether she did not
+think her children would all be hanged, and so on. At first, the woman
+tried a facetious and wheedling tone, then a whimpering one, and,
+finally, a scolding one. The last answered well. Mr. Nelson found that a
+man, to say nothing of a gentleman, has no chance with a woman with a
+sore heart in her breast, and a sick child in her lap, when once he has
+driven her to her weapon of the tongue. He said afterwards, that he had
+once gone to Billingsgate, on purpose to set two fishwomen quarrelling,
+that he might see what it was like. The scene had fulfilled all his
+expectations; but he now declared that it could not compare with this
+exhibition behind the alders. He stood a long while, first trying to
+overpower the woman’s voice; and, when that seemed hopeless, poking
+about among the rushes with his stick, and finally, staring in the
+woman’s face, in a mood between consternation and amusement:—thus he
+stood, waiting till the torrent should intermit; but there was no sign
+of intermission; and when the sick child began to move and rouse itself,
+and look at the strangers, as if braced by the vigour of its mother’s
+tongue, the prospect of an end seemed further off than ever. Mr. Nelson
+shrugged his shoulders, signed to his companions, and walked away
+through the alders. The woman was not silent because they were out of
+sight. Her voice waxed shriller as it followed them, and died away only
+in the distance. Moss was grasping Fleming’s hand with all his might
+when Mr. Nelson spoke to him, and shook his stick at him, asking him how
+he came to play with such people, and saying that if ever he heard him
+learning to scold like that woman, he would beat him with that stick: so
+Moss vowed he never would.
+
+“When the train was in sight by which Mr. Nelson was to depart, he
+turned to Fleming, with the most careless air imaginable, saying,
+
+“Have you any medicine in your house?—any bark?”
+
+“Not any. But I will send for some.”
+
+“Ay, do. Or,—no—I will send you some. See if you can’t get these people
+housed somewhere, so that they may not sleep in the swamp. I don’t mean
+in any of your houses, but in a barn, or some such place. If the physic
+comes before the doctor, get somebody to dose the child. And don’t fancy
+you are all going to die of the fever. That is the way to make
+yourselves ill: and it is all nonsense, too, I dare say.”
+
+“Do you like that gentleman?” asked Moss, sapiently, when the train was
+whirling Mr. Nelson out of sight. “Because I don’t—not at all.”
+
+“I believe he is kinder than he seems, Moss. He need not be so rough:
+but I know he does kind things sometimes.”
+
+“But, do you like him?”
+
+“No, I can’t say I do.”
+
+Before many hours were over, Fleming was sorry that he had admitted
+this, even to himself; and for many days after he was occasionally heard
+telling Moss what a good gentleman Mr. Nelson was, for all his roughness
+of manners. With the utmost speed, before it would have been thought
+possible, arrived a surgeon from the next town, with medicines, and the
+news that he was to come every day while there was any fear of fever.
+The gipsies were to have been cared for; but they were gone. The marks
+of their fire and a few stray feathers which showed that a fowl had been
+plucked, alone told where they had encamped. A neighbour, who loved her
+poultry yard, was heard to say that the sick child would not die for
+want of chicken broth, she would be bound; and the nearest farmer asked
+if they had left any potato-peels and turnip tops for his pig. He
+thought that was the least they could do after making their famous gipsy
+stew (a capital dish, it was said,) from his vegetables. They were gone;
+and if they had not left fever behind, they might be forgiven, for the
+sake of the benefit of taking themselves off. After the search for the
+gipsies was over, there was still an unusual stir about the place. One
+and another stranger appeared and examined the low grounds, and sent for
+one and another of the neighbouring proprietors, whether farmer, or
+builder, or gardener, or labourer; for every one who owned or rented a
+yard of land on the borders of the great ditch, or anywhere near the
+clay pits or osier beds. It was the opinion of the few residents near
+the Station that something would be done to improve the place before
+another year; and everybody said that it must be Mr. Nelson’s doings,
+and that it was a thousand pities that he did not come earlier, before
+the fever had crept thus far along the line.
+
+
+
+
+                           CHAPTER THE FIFTH.
+
+
+For some months past, Becky had believed without a doubt, that the day
+of her return home would be the very happiest day of her life. She was
+too young to know yet that it is not for us to settle which of our days
+shall be happy ones, nor what events shall yield us joy. The promise had
+not been kept that she should return when her father and mother removed
+into the new cottage. She had been told that there really was not, even
+now decent room for them all; and that they must at least wait till the
+hot weather was completely over before they crowded the chamber, as they
+had hitherto done. And then, when autumn came on, and the creeping mists
+from the low grounds hung round the place from sunset till after
+breakfast the next day, the mother delayed sending for her daughter,
+unwilling that she should lose the look of health which she alone now,
+of all the family, exhibited. Fleming and his wife and babe prospered
+better than the others. The young man’s business lay on the high ground,
+at the top of the embankment. He was there all day while Mr. Woodruffe
+and Allan were below, among the ditches and the late and early fogs.
+Mrs. Fleming was young and strong, full of spirit and happiness; and so
+far fortified against the attacks of disease, as a merry heart
+strengthens nerve and bone and muscle, and invigorates all the vital
+powers. In regard to her family, her father’s hopeful spirit seemed to
+have passed into her. While he was becoming permanently discouraged, she
+was always assured that everything would come right next year. The time
+had arrived for her power of hope to be tested to the utmost. One day
+this autumn, she admitted that Becky must be sent for. She did not
+forget, however, to charge Allan to be cheerful, and make the best of
+things, and not frighten Becky by the way.
+
+It was now the end of October. Some of the days were balmy elsewhere—the
+afternoons ruddy; the leaves crisp beneath the tread; the squirrel busy
+after the nuts in the wood; the pheasants splendid among the dry ferns
+in the brake, the sportsman warm and thirsty in his exploring among the
+stubble. In the evenings the dwellers in country houses called one
+another out upon the grass, to see how bright the stars were, and how
+softly the moonlight slept upon the woods. While it was thus in one
+place, in another, and not far off, all was dank, dim, dreary and
+unwholesome; with but little sun, and no moon or stars; all chill, and
+no glow; no stray perfumes, the last of the year, but sickly scents
+coming on the steam from below. Thus it was about Fleming’s house, this
+latter end of October, when he saw but little of his wife, because she
+was nursing her mother in the fever, and when he tried to amuse himself
+with his young baby at mealtimes (awkward nurse as he was) to relieve
+his wife of the charge for the little time he could be at home. When the
+baby cried, and when he saw his Abby look wearied, he did wish, now and
+then, that Becky was at home: but he was patient, and helpful, and as
+cheerful as he could, till the day which settled the matter. On that
+morning he felt strangely weak, barely able to mount the steps to the
+station. During the morning, several people told him he looked ill; and
+one person did more. The porter sent a message to the next large Station
+that somebody must be sent immediately to fill Fleming’s place, in case
+of his being too ill to work. Somebody came; and before that, Fleming
+was in bed—certainly down in the fever. His wife was now wanted at home;
+and Becky must come to her mother.
+
+Though Becky asked questions all the way home, and Allan answered them
+as truthfully as he knew how, she was not prepared for what she
+found—her father aged and bent, always in pain, more or less, and far
+less furnished with plans and hopes than she had ever known him; Moss,
+fretful and sickly, and her mother unable to turn herself in her bed.
+Nobody mentioned death. The surgeon who came daily, and told Becky
+exactly what to do, said nothing of anybody dying of the fever, while
+Woodruffe was continually talking of things that were to be done when
+his wife got well again. It was sad, and sometimes alarming, to hear the
+strange things that Mrs. Woodruffe said in the evenings when she was
+delirious; but if Abby stepped in at such times, she did not think much
+of it, did not look upon it as any sign of danger; and was only thankful
+that her husband had no delirium. His head was always clear, she said,
+though he was very weak. Becky never doubted, after this, that her
+mother was the most severely ill of the two; and she was thunderstruck
+when she heard one morning the surgeon’s answers to her father’s
+questions about Fleming. He certainly considered it a bad case; he would
+not say that he could not get through; but he must say it was contrary
+to his expectation. When Becky saw her father’s face as he turned away
+and went out, she believed his heart was broken.
+
+“But I thought,” said she to the surgeon, “I thought my mother was most
+ill of the two.”
+
+“I don’t know that,” was the reply, “but she is very ill. We are doing
+the best we can.—You are, I am sure,” he said, kindly; “and we must hope
+on, and do our best till a change comes. The wisest of us do not know
+what changes may come. But I could not keep your father in ignorance of
+what may happen in the other house.”
+
+No appearances alarmed Abby. Because there was no delirium, she
+apprehended no danger. Even when the fatal twitchings came, the arm
+twitching as it lay upon the coverlid, she did not know it was a symptom
+of anything. As she nursed her husband perfectly well, and could not
+have been made more prudent and watchful by any warning, she had no
+warning. Her cheerfulness was encouraged, for her infant’s sake, as well
+as for her husband’s and her own. Some thought that her husband knew his
+own case. A word or two,—now a gesture, and now a look,—persuaded the
+surgeon and Woodruffe that he was aware that he was going. His small
+affairs were always kept settled; he had probably no directions to give;
+and his tenderness for his wife showed itself in his enjoying her
+cheerfulness to the last. When, as soon as it was light, one December
+morning, Moss was sent to ask if Abby could possibly come for a few
+minutes, because mother was worse, he found his sister alone, looking at
+the floor, her hands on her lap, though the baby was fidgetting in its
+cradle. Fleming’s face was covered, and he lay so still that Moss, who
+had never seen death, felt sure that all was over. The boy hardly knew
+what to do; and his sister seemed not to hear what he said. The thought
+of his mother,—that Abby’s going might help or save her,—moved him to
+act. He kissed Abby, and said she must please go to mother; and he took
+the baby out of the cradle, and wrapped it up, and put it into its
+mother’s arms; and fetched Abby’s bonnet, and took her cloak down from
+its peg, and opened the door for her, saying, that he would stay and
+take care of everything. His sister went without a word; and, as soon as
+he had closed the door behind her, Moss sank down on his knees before
+the chair where she had been sitting, and hid his face there till some
+one came for him,—to see his mother once more before she died.
+
+As the two coffins were carried out, to be conveyed to the churchyard
+together, Mr. Nelson, who had often been backward and forward during the
+last six weeks, observed to the surgeon that the death of such a man as
+Fleming was a dreadful loss.
+
+“It is that sort of men that the fever cuts off,” said the surgeon. “The
+strong man, in the prime of life, at his best period, one may say, for
+himself and for society, is taken away,—leaving wife and child helpless
+and forlorn. That is the ravage that the fever makes.”
+
+“Well: would not people tell you that it is our duty to submit?” asked
+Mr. Nelson, who could not help showing some emotion by voice and
+countenance.
+
+“Submit!” said the surgeon. “That depends on what the people mean who
+use the word. If you or I were ill of the fever, we must resign
+ourselves, as cheerfully as we could. But if you ask me whether we
+should submit to see more of our neighbours cut off by fever as these
+have been, I can only ask in return, whose doing it is that they are
+living in a swamp, and whether that is to go on? Who dug the clay pits?
+Who let that ditch run abroad, and make a filthy bog? Are you going to
+charge that upon Providence, and talk of submitting to the consequences?
+If so, that is not my religion.”
+
+“No, no. There is no religion in that,” replied Mr. Nelson, for once
+agreeing in what was said to him. “It must be looked to.”
+
+“It must,” said the surgeon, as decidedly as if he had been a railway
+director, or king and parliament in one.
+
+
+
+
+                           CHAPTER THE SIXTH.
+
+
+“I wonder whether there is a more forlorn family in England than we are
+now,” said Woodruffe, as he sat among his children, a few hours after
+the funeral.
+
+His children were glad to hear him speak, however gloomy might be his
+tone. His silence had been so terrible that nothing that he could say
+could so weigh upon their hearts. His words, however, brought out his
+widowed daughter’s tears again. She was sewing—her infant lying in her
+lap. As her tears fell upon its face, it moved and cried. Becky came and
+took it up, and spoke cheerfully to it. The cheerfulness seemed to be
+the worst of all. Poor Abby laid her forehead to the back of her chair,
+and sobbed as if her heart would break.
+
+“Ay, Abby,” said her father, “your heart is breaking, and mine too. You
+and I can go to our rest, like those that have gone before us: but I
+have to think what will become of these young things.”
+
+“Yes, father,” said Becky gently, but with a tone of remonstrance, “you
+must endeavour to live, and not make up your mind to dying, because life
+has grown heavy and sad.”
+
+“My dear, I am ill—very ill. It is not merely that life is grown
+intolerable to me. I am sure I could not live long in such misery of
+mind: but I am breaking up fast.”
+
+The young people looked at each other in dismay. There was something
+worse than the grief conveyed by their father’s words in the hopeless
+daring—the despair—of his tone when he ventured to say that life was
+unendurable.
+
+Becky had the child on one arm; with the other hand she took down her
+father’s plaid from its peg, and put it round his rheumatic shoulders,
+whispering in his ear a few words about desiring that God’s will should
+be done.
+
+“My dear,” he replied, “it was I who taught you that lesson when you
+were a child on my knee, and it would be strange if I forgot it when I
+want so much any comfort that I can get. But I don’t believe (and if you
+ask the clergyman, he will tell you that he does not believe), that it
+is God’s will that we, or any other people, should be thrust into a
+swamp like this, scarcely fit for the rats and the frogs to live in. It
+is man’s doing, not God’s, that the fever makes such havoc as it has
+made with us. The fever does not lay waste healthy places.”
+
+“Then why are we here?” Allan ventured to say. “Father, let us go.”
+
+“Go! I wonder how or where! I can’t go, or let any of you go. I have not
+a pound in the world to spend in moving, or in finding new employment.
+And if I had, who would employ me? Who would not laugh at a crippled old
+man asking for work and wages?”
+
+“Then, father, we must see what we can do here, and you must not forbid
+us to say ‘God’s will be done!’ If we cannot go away, it must be His
+will that we should stay, and have as much hope and courage as we can.”
+
+Woodruffe threw himself back in his chair. It was too much to expect
+that he would immediately rally; but he let the young people confer, and
+plan, and cheer each other.
+
+The first thing to be done, they agreed, was to move hither, whenever
+the dismal rain would permit it, all Abby’s furniture that could not be
+disposed of to her husband’s successors. It would fit up the lower room.
+And Allan and Becky settled how the things could stand so as to make it
+at once a bedroom and sitting-room. If, as Abby had said, she meant to
+try to get some scholars, and keep a little school, room must be left to
+seat the children.
+
+“Keep a school?” exclaimed Woodruffe, looking round at Abby.
+
+“Yes, father,” said Abby, raising her head. “That seems to be a thing
+that I can do: and it will be good for me to have something to do. Becky
+is the stoutest of us all, and....”
+
+“I wonder how long that will last,” groaned the father.
+
+“I am quite stout now,” said Becky; “and I am the one to help Allan with
+the garden. Allan and I will work under your direction, father, while
+your rheumatism lasts; and....”
+
+“And what am I to do?” asked Moss, pushing himself in.
+
+“You shall fetch and carry the tools,” said Becky; “that is, when the
+weather is fine, and when your chilblains are not very bad. And you
+shall be bird-boy when the sowing season comes on.”
+
+“And we are going to put up a pent-house for you, in one corner, you
+know, Moss,” said his brother. “And we will make it so that there shall
+be room for a fire in it, where father and you may warm yourselves, and
+always have dry shoes ready.”
+
+“I wonder what our shoe leather will have cost us by the time the spring
+comes,” observed Woodruffe. “There is not a place where we ever have to
+take the cart or the barrow that is not all mire and ruts: not a path in
+the whole garden that I call a decent one. Our shoes are all pulled to
+pieces; while the frost, or the fog, or something or other, prevents our
+getting any real work done. The waste is dreadful. Nothing should have
+made me take a garden where none but summer crops are to be had, if I
+could have foreseen such a thing. I never saw such a thing
+before,—never—as market-gardening without winter and spring crops. Never
+heard of such a thing!”
+
+Becky glanced towards Allan, to see if he had nothing to propose. If
+they could neither mend the place nor leave it, it did seem a hard case.
+Allan was looking into the fire, musing. When Moss announced that the
+rain was over, Allan started, and said he must be fetching some of
+Abby’s things down, if it was fair. Becky really meant to help him: but
+she also wanted opportunity for consultation, as to whether it could
+really be God’s will that they should neither be able to mend their
+condition nor to escape from it. As they mounted the long flight of
+steps, they saw Mr. Nelson issue from the Station, looking about him to
+ascertain if the rain was over, and take his stand on the embankment,
+followed by a gentleman who had a roll of paper in his hand. As they
+stood, the one was seen to point with his stick, and the other with his
+roll of paper, this way and that. Allan set off in that direction,
+saying to his sister, as he went,
+
+“Don’t you come. That gentleman is so rude, he will make you cry. Yes, I
+must go; and I won’t get angry; I won’t indeed. He may find as much
+fault as he pleases; I must show him how the water is standing in our
+furrows.”
+
+“Hallo! what do you want here?” was Mr. Nelson’s greeting, when, after a
+minute or two, he saw Allan looking and listening. “What business have
+you here, hearkening to what we are saying?”
+
+“I wanted to know whether anything is going to be done below there. I
+thought, if you wished it, I could tell you something about it.”
+
+“You! what, a dainty little fellow like you?—a fellow that wears his
+Sunday clothes on a Tuesday, and a rainy Tuesday too! You must get
+working clothes and work.”
+
+“I shall work to-morrow, Sir. My mother and my brother-in-law were
+buried to-day.”
+
+“Lord bless me! You should have told me that. How should I know that
+unless you told me?” He proceeded in a much gentler tone, however,
+merely remonstrating with Allan for letting the wet stand in the
+furrows, in such a way as would spoil any garden. Allan had a good ally,
+all the while, in the stranger, who seemed to understand everything
+before it was explained. The gentleman was, in fact, an agricultural
+surveyor—one who could tell, when looking abroad from a height, what was
+swamp and what meadow; where there was a clean drain, and where an
+uneven ditch; where the soil was likely to be watered, and where flooded
+by the winter rains; where genially warmed, and where fatally baked by
+the summer’s sun. He had seen, before Allan pointed it out, how the
+great ditch cut across between the cultivated grounds and the little
+river into which those grounds should be drained: but he could not know,
+till told by Allan, who were the proprietors and occupiers of the
+parcels of land lying on either side the ditch. Mr. Nelson knew little
+or nothing under this head, though he contradicted the lad every minute;
+was sure such an one did not live here, nor another there: told him he
+was confusing Mr. Smith and Mr. Brown: did not believe a word of Mr.
+Taylor having bought yonder meadow, or Mrs. Scott now renting that
+field. All the while, the surveyor went on setting down the names as
+Allan told them; and then observed that they were not so many but that
+they might combine, if they would, to drain their properties, if they
+could be relieved of the obstruction of the ditch—if the surveyor of
+highways would see that the ditch were taken in hand. Mr. Nelson
+pronounced that there should be no difficulty about the ditch, if the
+rest could be managed: and then, after a few whispered words between the
+gentlemen, Allan was asked first, whether he was sure that he knew where
+every person lived whose name was down in the surveyor’s book; and next,
+whether he would act as guide to-morrow. For a moment he thought he
+should be wanted to move Abby’s things: but, remembering the vast
+importance of the plan which seemed now to be fairly growing under his
+eye, he replied that he would go: he should be happy to make it his
+day’s work to help, ever so little, towards what he wished above
+everything in the world.
+
+“What makes you in such a hurry to suppose we want to get a day’s work
+out of you for nothing?” asked Mr. Nelson. He thrust half-a-crown into
+the lad’s waistcoat pocket, saying that he must give it back again, if
+he led the gentleman wrong. The gentleman had no time to go running
+about the country on a fool’s errand; Allan must mind that. As Allan
+touched his hat, and ran down the steps, Mr. Nelson observed that boys
+with good hearts did not fly about in that way, as if they were merry,
+on the day of their mother’s funeral.
+
+“Perhaps he is rather thinking of saving his father,” observed the
+surveyor.
+
+“Well; save as many of them as you can. They seem all going to pot as it
+is.”
+
+When Allan burst in, carrying nothing of Abby’s, but having a little
+colour in his cheeks for once, his father sat up in his chair, the baby
+suddenly stopped crying, and Moss asked where he had been. At first, his
+father disappointed him by being listless—first refusing to believe
+anything good, and then saying that any good that could happen now was
+too late; and Abby could not help crying all the more because this was
+not thought about a year sooner. It was her poor husband that had made
+the stir; and now they were going to take his advice the very day that
+he was laid in his grave. They all tried to comfort her, and said how
+natural it was that she should feel it so; yet, amidst all their
+sympathy, they could not help being cheered that something was to be
+done at last.
+
+By degrees, and not slow degrees, Woodruffe became animated. It was
+surprising how many things he desired Allan to be sure not to forget to
+point out to the surveyor, and to urge upon those he was to visit. At
+last he said he would go himself. It was a very serious business, and he
+ought to make an effort to have it done properly. It was a great effort,
+but he would make it. Not rheumatism, nor anything else, should keep him
+at home. Allan was glad at heart to see such signs of energy in his
+father, though he might feel some natural disappointment at being left
+at home, and some perplexity as to what, in that case, he ought to do
+about the half-crown, if Mr. Nelson should be gone home. The morning
+settled this, however. The surveyor was in his gig. If Allan could hang
+on, or keep up with it, it would be very well, as he would be wanted to
+open the gates, and to lead the way in places too wet for his father,
+who was not worth such a pair of patent waterproof tall boots as the
+surveyor had on.
+
+The circuit was not a very wide one; yet it was dark before they got
+home. There are always difficulties in arrangements which require
+combined action. Here there were different levels in the land, and
+different tempers and views among the occupiers. Mr. Brown had heard
+nothing about the matter, and could not be hurried till he saw occasion.
+Mr. Taylor liked his field best, wet—would not have it drier on any
+account, for fear of the summer sun. When assured that drought took no
+hold on well-dried land in comparison with wet land, he shook with
+laughter, and asked if they expected him to believe that. Mrs. Scott,
+whose combination with two others was essential to the drainage of three
+portions, would wait another year. They must go on without her; and
+after another year, she would see what she would do. Another had drained
+his land in his own way long ago, and did not expect that anybody would
+ask him to put his spade into another man’s land, or to let any other
+man put his spade into his. These were all the obstructions. Everybody
+else was willing, or at least, not obstructive. By clever management, it
+was thought that the parties concerned could make an island of Mrs.
+Scott and her field, and win over Mr. Brown by the time he was wanted,
+and show Mr. Taylor that, as his field could no longer be as wet as it
+had been, he might as well try the opposite condition—they promising to
+flood his field as often and as thoroughly as he pleased, if he found it
+the worse for being drained. They could not obtain all they wished,
+where every body was not as wise as could be wished; but so much was
+agreed upon as made the experienced surveyor think that the rest would
+follow; enough, already, to set more labourers to work than the place
+could furnish. Two or three stout men were sent from a distance; and
+when they had once cut a clear descent from the ditch to the river, and
+had sunk the ditch to seven feet deep, and made the bottom even, and
+narrowed it to three feet, it was a curious thing to see how ready the
+neighbours became to unite their drains with it. It used to be said,
+that here—however it might be elsewhere—the winter was no time for
+digging: but that must have meant that no winter-digging would bring a
+spring crop; and that therefore it was useless. Now, the sound of the
+spade never ceased for the rest of the winter; and the labourers thought
+it the best winter they had ever known for constant work. Those who
+employed the labour hoped it would answer—found it expensive—must trust
+it was all right, and would yield a profit by and by. As for the
+Woodruffes, they were too poor to employ labourers. But some little hope
+had entered their hearts again, and brought strength, not only to their
+hearts, but to their very limbs. They worked like people beginning the
+world. As poor Abby could keep the house and sew, while attending to her
+little school, Becky did the lighter parts (and some which were far from
+light) of the garden work, finding easy tasks for Moss; and Allan worked
+like a man at the drains. They had been called good drains before; but
+now, there was an outfall for deeper ones; and deeper they must be made.
+Moreover, a strong rivalry arose among the neighbours about their
+respective portions of the combined drainage; and under the stimulus of
+ambition, Woodruffe recovered his spirits and the use of his limbs
+wonderfully. He suffered cruelly from his rheumatism; and in the
+evenings felt as if he could never more lift a spade; yet, not the less
+was he at work again in the morning, and so sanguine as to the
+improvement of his ground, that it was necessary to remind him, when
+calculating his gains, that it would take two years, at least, to prove
+the effects of his present labours.
+
+
+
+
+                        LINES TO A DEAD LINNET.
+
+                         BY A SOLITARY STUDENT.
+
+
+           Sweet little friend in hours of lonely thought,
+           And studious toil thro’ the unresting day,
+           Why hast thou left me to the sullen hours,
+           So dull and changeless now? Thy light-heart song,
+           And fluttering plume of joy, beguile no more
+           My weary mind, happy when so estranged,
+           From books, which are the bane of all repose.
+
+             The secret bustle of thy frequent meal,
+           Like elfin working mischief, all unseen
+           At bottom of thy cage; thy dipping bill,
+           Oft splashing sportive o’er the learned tome,
+           And rousing my ’rapt soul to homelier themes;
+           The tuning twitter, snatch’d and interrupt—
+           The timorous essay, low and querulous—
+           The strain symphonious—and the full burst of song,
+           That made my study-walls re-echo sweet,
+           The harmonious peal, while all its tatter’d maps
+           And prints unframed, responsive tremblings gave;—
+           All these are past, and joy takes wing with thee.
+
+             Nor less, when in the dreary night, far spent,
+           Still was I pondering o’er the murky page,
+           Hast thou attracted notice by thy bill
+           Battling along the wires; and in the twinkle—
+           The clos’d—and then, bright little eye, half-oped.
+           Well have I read thy meaning, and full soon,
+           Thus warned of needful slumber, borne away
+           The wasted lamp, and sought my lonely couch.
+
+             Thy empty cage now hangs against the wall!
+           No one inhabits it—nothing is there—
+           Thy seed-box is half full of dust and film;
+           A spider weaves within thy water-glass:
+           The wretchedness of silence—no response
+           To calls and questionings of the heart—the mind—
+           All show me thou art dead—for ever gone!
+           I stand and gaze on thy perplexing cage—
+           Like a friend’s house—deserted!—one we have loved—
+           And before which, returning after years,
+           We pause, and think of hours enjoyed within;
+           And gaze upon the dusty shutters—closed!
+
+
+
+
+                           THE GOOD GOVERNOR.
+
+
+In a region where favourable latitude and tempering sea-breezes combine
+to produce perpetual summer, lie “the still vexed Bermoothes,” the
+Bermuda of modern navigators, where one-half of the year is the fitting
+seedtime for plants of the tropical, and the other half of the temperate
+zones. These islands, discovered to us by a shipwreck, with one
+exception, our oldest colony, offer a miniature copy of the institutions
+of the parent state.
+
+About twenty square miles of surface, consisting of one island thirty
+miles long by two broad, and a half-dozen _aide-de-camp_ sort of islets,
+support a population rather less numerous, and considerably less
+wealthy, than that of the City of Canterbury; and enjoy the dignity of a
+capital, with two thousand inhabitants; of a Governor and
+Commander-in-Chief, who takes his seat on “the throne” when opening the
+Bermoothean Parliament; of a Council, or miniature House of Lords, and a
+Representative Assembly of thirty-six members, forming a miniature House
+of Commons. They had formerly an Archdeacon, but, by one of those
+extraordinary decisions that occasionally originate in high quarters,
+the Archdeacon has been metamorphosed into a Bishop of Newfoundland,
+whom the Bermudians never see, although they still have the honour of
+paying the salary of the late Archdeacon.
+
+Formerly Bermuda, like Virginia, from which it was an offshoot, was a
+slave colony, and grew tobacco. But tobacco would not pay, and every
+Bermudian, being born within a mile of the water, was bred amphibious.
+Capital cedar for ship-building grows on the hills, and harbours are all
+around to receive the craft when built. So it came to pass, that the
+“‘Mudian” clippers became plentiful all over the neighbouring seas, and
+took a large share of the carrying trade between our American colonies
+and the West Indies. Even when a large slice of these said colonies had
+struggled into the Republic of the United States, the ’Mudians continued
+to do a good stroke of sea-faring business.
+
+Then whales abounded in the neighbouring seas, and every ’Mudian took to
+handling the oar, the lance, or the harpoon, at a time of life when
+other children were driving hoops, or riding rocking-horses.
+
+It was the natural result of these handy occupations in so limited a
+space, that the whole population, with the exception of that supported
+by the expenditure of the garrison, was occupied in building, or
+rigging, or manning, or loading, vessels of some kind, if not whaling or
+fishing. White or black, they were all sailors and sea-faring to a man,
+almost to a woman. The real mermaid still lingers round Bermuda’s coast.
+Breechless babies swaggered along with a mixture of long and short steps
+in true jack-tar style. Bermudian young ladies directed their maids to
+let out a reef in a petticoat, and officers driving tandem were bid “put
+yer helm down,” by native guides.
+
+There are no records to show when first in Bermuda sea-faring arts began
+to devour all others; certain it is that just as the manufacture of
+glass and porcelain, purple dye, and other signal utilities and
+ornaments have been more than once discovered, lost, and re-discovered,
+so were agriculture and horticulture in the year 1839 of the islands of
+perpetual spring, among the lost arts. If in that year some convulsion
+had for ever separated them from external communications, the process of
+food-growing among a British race would have been left as rude in
+theory, more imperfect in practice, than among the New Zealanders or
+South Sea Islanders.
+
+There were in that year two persons in the islands who could plough, but
+they did not. Haymaking and mowing was a theory learned in books, just
+as curious inquirers in Lancashire may have read of cotton cultivation.
+As for the state of gardening, it was about parallel with British
+gardening in the time of Queen Bess, who used to send to Holland for a
+salad.
+
+So there was neither corn nor hay, and very little fruit, of the worst
+quality. A sort of bitter orange-tree abounded through the islands.
+Inquisitive strangers asked “Why not graft or bud sweet oranges on these
+luxuriant stocks, or why not sow sweet seeds?” But the natives were
+positive that buds would not take, and seeds would not grow.
+
+Such was Bermuda in 1839; somewhat depressed in its fishing, whaling,
+ship-building, sea-carrying commerce, by the competition of New
+Brunswick and the United States. Although less affected than the
+sugar-growing islands by negro emancipation, still whites, who had lived
+easily although barely by hiring out a few black artisans, were reduced
+to sore straits.
+
+It was in this year there arrived a new Governor. He travelled the
+length and breadth of his islands, and found all green and all barren; a
+light, but fertile soil, bearing fine timber, and luxuriant weeds. Round
+the government house was a waste of eight acres, within sight a great
+swamp. According to popular opinion, Colonial Governors are gentlemen of
+broken fortunes, and strong political connections, who endure temporary
+evils for the sake of future ease and dignity.
+
+At any rate, among military martinet Governors; naval bashaw Governors;
+didactic despatch-writing Governors; Governors landing with crotchets
+all ready-cut and dry; Governors who support the Royal Prerogative by
+quarrelling with all their subjects, and Governors whose whole soul is
+in quiet and domestic economy, the popular Governor, the wise,
+conciliating Governor, is indeed a rare bird. According to stereotyped
+precedent, our Bermoothean Governor ought to have first sat down and
+written a flaming despatch home, painting the misery of the island,
+detailing his plans, and asking for money. Next he should have filled up
+a scheme on a scale large enough to satisfy the ideas of a Paxton in
+horticulture, or a Smith of Deanston in agriculture, and applied to his
+little parliament for a vote, in order to make a garden for himself, and
+a model farm for his own amusement and the benefit of the islanders.
+
+But it happened that our “good” Governor as he was afterwards called
+with good reason, was not a stereotyped Governor, so that the people he
+was sent to rule became happy and prosperous. He cared not to become
+either rich or famous. Therefore, all his proceedings were on a humble,
+commonplace scale. Seeing that the climate was admirably adapted for
+oranges; which, if of good quality, would afford a valuable export, he
+sent for slips and seeds of the best kinds.
+
+In front of Government House stands a bitter citron-tree: on this, with
+his own hands, he budded a sweet orange. The bud, contrary to all
+Bermudian opinions, sprouted, and grew, and flourished. After the living
+example of the Governor’s tree, it became a fashion—a rage—to bud sweet
+oranges; so by this simple and short cut an horticultural revolution was
+effected. Still working out the maxim that example is better than
+precept, our good Governor beat up for gardener recruits, accepting
+those who knew a little as well as those who knew nothing, but were
+willing to learn. With their aid, and at his own expense, the eight
+acres of waste round his residence, Mount Langton, were converted into a
+pleasure-ground, adorned with plants and shrubs of the tropical and
+temperate zones, which he threw open freely to the inhabitants without
+distinction of colour.
+
+The next step was to drain the great marsh, the Langton Marsh, and grow
+hay upon it, so as to give the Bermudians a hint on the oddness of
+importing hay, while fine grass land lay waste. Two men who could plough
+were discovered, and pupils put under their hands; at the same time
+ploughs were imported. Having, out of his own pocket, offered prizes for
+garden flowers and vegetables, for corn and hay, for the best ploughman,
+and the best scytheman, the performances of these two being as wonderful
+to the islanders as skating to an Indian prince, or wine-making to a
+Yorkshireman, the Local Parliament willingly voted other prizes for the
+same purpose.
+
+It would take up too much time to detail all the good Governor’s
+efforts—by example, by instruction, by rewards, by distribution of
+books, and by the promotion of industrial schools, to educate the rising
+generation of Bermuda in useful, civilising arts.
+
+A grand holiday, held in May, 1846, showed that these efforts had not
+been without pleasant and practical results.
+
+Mount Langton and all the pleasure-grounds created under the personal
+inspection and at the expense of the good Governor, were crowded with a
+noisy happy population, of all ranks, all ages, and all colours, black,
+white, and brown, assembled to enjoy and celebrate the taking stock of
+the revived Industry of the islands. Not equal in variety to the great
+Parisian Exposition, or in quality to the Royal Agricultural Shows, it
+was still an era in the history of the colony.
+
+The Queen’s representative did not grudge to give up for the occasion
+his private domain, as that was the best site in the Island. Amid the
+luxuriant shrubs and gorgeous tropical flowers, the gay groups wandered;
+sweetly the sounds of the regimental band intermingled with the shouts
+and whip-crackings of the contending ploughmen as they turned up the
+brown furrows of long neglected soil, and with the switching of
+twenty-five scythe-men exhibiting their newly acquired skill on the
+drained pasture of Langton Marsh. Below lay the shipping in harbour, and
+far beyond the golden purple ocean was dotted over with the cloud-like
+canvas of the famous ’Mudian craft. Almost at once—one glance—it was
+possible to take in a view of the pursuits of old and young Bermuda.
+Government House was closed;—to have entertained the thousands who had
+assembled (beyond the needful supply of cold water found in huge jars
+and tubs in every shady place, a provision so grateful under a tropical
+sun,) was impossible; to have entertained a part—an exclusive few—on
+such an occasion, would have been contrary to the Governor’s principles;
+so for that day all personal attendants were enabled to share in the
+universal holiday.
+
+In due time after the ploughing and mowing matches, came the competition
+in turnips, strawberries, potatoes, dahlias, barley, potherbs, flax, and
+cabbages, and the parading and comparison of horse-colts, ass-colts,
+calves, heifers, bulls, sows, and boars.
+
+Now, before the advent of this reforming Governor, the Bermudians had
+been accustomed to no other competition than that of sailing or cricket
+matches or steeple-chases; to no other exhibitions than military
+reviews; all excellent in their way, but now usefully varied by a kind
+of competition that brought new comforts to every cottager.
+
+Years have elapsed since the day of this well-remembered _fête_. But the
+good Governor is still affectionately remembered. The Bermudians love to
+show passing strangers the sweet orange-tree on Mount Langton which
+still blooms a green and golden monument of plain, practical,
+kind-hearted common sense. And this sketch of a remote and insignificant
+dependency has been thought worth telling for the benefit, not only of
+colonial Governors, but of well-meaning reformers in all parts of the
+world. If we would do good we must not be content with mere talk; we
+must not disdain to commence at our own doors by budding—a sweet orange
+on a bitter citron.
+
+
+
+
+                        LONDON PAUPER CHILDREN.
+
+
+High and dry upon a pleasant breezy hilltop about seven miles south of
+London stands a house worthy of a visit. Far enough away to be quite
+free from the cloud of smoke, yet near enough for easy access from
+London; it is a large house in the country, in and out of which a large
+family of essentially London tenants are perpetually going. Walk round
+the hill it stands upon, and a succession of charming views present
+themselves for admiration. A far distant horizon bounds a country made
+up of purple woods, rich golden brown stripes of corn-fields, and bright
+green meadows. Here young plantations; there stately single timber
+trees; with villas nestling under fringes of woods on pleasant slopes,
+whilst in the valley below runs the Croydon Railway, linking this
+charming, quiet country round Norwood, to the smoky, busy, useful
+London.
+
+The place we speak of is the Pauper-School at Norwood, which may be
+called a factory for making harmless, if not useful subjects, of the
+very worst of human material—a place for converting those who would
+otherwise certainly be miserable, and most likely vicious, into
+rational, reasonable, and often very useful members of society;—in
+short, a house for training a large and wretched class in habits of
+decency, regularity, and order, and leading a pitiable section of the
+great two-million-strong family of London from the road to crime into
+that of honest industry and self-respect.
+
+The exterior of the building has no trace of the architectural display
+that won for the school near Manchester the title of a Pauper Palace.
+The exterior of the Norwood house is as dingy and ugly as a small
+brewhouse. In shape it reminds one of the old cities, built upon no
+definite plan, but enlarged from time to time as the population found it
+most convenient. It is neither square, nor round, nor triangular; but
+then, when we go over it, we shall find that the lack of straight lines
+and right angles does not prevent the presence of much good, and of a
+fair amount of comfort and happiness within its confines.
+
+The irregularity of its construction is explained by the fact that the
+place was established twenty-seven years ago, not by a public body, but
+by a private individual, Mr. Aubin, the present superintendant. The
+commencement of such a place was an epoch in the history of pauperism in
+this country. Before the time of the benevolent Jonas Hanway, no regard
+was paid to the destitute children of the poor, and those young
+children, whose ill-fate it was to be born of pauper parents, in town,
+were condemned to a life that began in the gutters of back lanes, and
+usually ended in the gaol, by fever, or more suddenly, on the gallows.
+Hanway secured the passing of a law empowering the parishes to collect
+the juvenile paupers and send them into the country for nurture and
+maintenance. It was a step in advance to get the children away from the
+dens in which they had previously been confined, but the nurture was of
+a very unsatisfactory kind. When an old woman applied for parish relief,
+she had two or three children given to her to keep, and out of their
+allowance she was to help to keep herself. She usually set them to
+collect firewood for her; or to watch sheep, or to scare crows; and, in
+their search for fuel, they were often taught to rob hedges, or fences,
+or trespass on plantations. At seven years’ old they were sent back to
+finish their education in the workhouses, and frequently remained there
+for six or seven years without even learning their letters. Indeed, to
+teach them at all was regarded as a kind of small treason. “Teach
+paupers to read! What next?” was a common exclamation. Reading was, by a
+great many people, considered to be a mere premium for laziness—whilst
+writing was thought to be a temptation to forgery, and its then certain
+result—the gallows. To collect the pauper children, and “farm them out”
+to persons who would teach as well as feed them, was the next step in
+advance. The fruit of this plan was the growth of various places where
+large numbers of the pauper rising generation were gathered together in
+houses, the proprietors of which often realised large profits upon the
+moneys allowed for maintaining this class of the population.
+
+Taking advantage of the generally and loudly expressed public opinion,
+that “something must be done,” the Poor-Law Board succeeded in
+establishing some school districts near the metropolis. The first step
+taken was to purchase Mr. Aubin’s place at Norwood, and thus take it
+into their own hands. This school had long been regarded as the best of
+its class, and as one where many steps of great practical value had been
+taken for the improved treatment of youthful paupers. The purchase-money
+of this school is said to have been about eleven thousand pounds, and
+the authorities wisely retained the aid of the man who had originated
+it, to carry out still further into effect their improved plans. This
+step was soon followed by others. In the publication of the Poor-Law
+Board, just issued—the promoters of our present poor-law system long ago
+saw the mischiefs of this plan, and after some years’ consideration, and
+many difficulties, succeeded in procuring an Act of Parliament for the
+establishment of district pauper Industrial Schools. But though the law
+was made, it was found impossible to overcome the objections raised by
+parish authorities, and it was not carried out to any extent, until the
+terrible calamity of Tooting startled all England with the spectacle of
+hundreds of deaths by cholera, in an establishment where the little
+unfortunates were “farmed out.”
+
+In the Second Annual Report of the Poor-Law Board, Mr. Baines, its
+President, says, that three very important school districts have, within
+the year, been formed in and near the metropolis. These are:—
+
+  “1st. The Central London School District, comprising the City of
+  London Union, the East London Union, and the St. Saviour’s Union. The
+  Board of Management of this district have completed all their
+  arrangements and hold their regular meetings. They have purchased of
+  Mr. Aubin his premises at Norwood for the district school, retaining
+  him in the capacity of steward or superintendant of the establishment,
+  and have appointed an efficient staff of teachers in every department.
+  The school is now in full activity, upon an improved footing, and
+  nearly eight hundred children (nine hundred) are maintained and
+  educated in it.
+
+  “2nd. The South Metropolitan School District comprised, as originally
+  formed, the Union of St. Olave’s, and the large parishes, not in
+  Union, of Bermondsey, Camberwell, and Rotherhithe.
+
+  “3rd. The North Surrey School District includes the Unions of
+  Wandsworth and Clapham, Kingston, Croydon, Richmond, and Lewisham. The
+  managers have purchased fifty acres of land near Norwood, and have
+  commenced the erection of a building capable of accommodating six
+  hundred children.
+
+  “It will thus be seen that provision has been made in and around
+  London for the proper education and training of more than two thousand
+  poor children. We have, moreover, sanctioned arrangements whereby,
+  when completed, the state of the children of other metropolitan
+  parishes will be very materially improved.”
+
+About nine hundred children are congregated at Norwood, and out of the
+whole number there is not perhaps a dozen the offspring of decent
+parents. Many are foundlings, picked up at the corners of streets, or at
+the doors of parish officers. The names of some of them suggest an idea
+of how they began life. Thus, one owned the name of Olive Jewry, whilst
+another was called Alfred City. Others have lost both parents by death,
+and been left puling living legacies to the parish, but the majority are
+the children of parents living in workhouses. When able-bodied paupers
+claim relief, they are “offered the house.” They are received into the
+Union, and their children are sent up to this out-of-town school, that
+fresh air, cleanliness, good food and the schoolmaster, may try what can
+be done to lift them up from the slough of pauperism. Let us examine the
+process through which they go.
+
+The children, on their first appearance at this Norwood School, are
+usually in the most lamentable plight. Ignorance and dirt, rags and
+vermin, laziness and ill health, diseased scalps, and skins tortured by
+itch, are their characteristics. They are the very dregs of the
+population of the largest city in the world—the human waifs and strays
+of the modern Babylon; the children of poverty, and misery, and crime;
+in very many cases labouring under physical defects, such as bad sight
+or hearing; almost always stunted in their growth, and bearing the stamp
+of ugliness and suffering on their features. Generally born in dark
+alleys and back courts, their playground has been the streets, where the
+wits of many have been prematurely sharpened at the expense of any
+morals they might have. With minds and bodies destitute of proper
+nutriment, they are caught, as it were, by the parish officers, like
+half-wild creatures, roaming poverty-stricken amidst the wealth of our
+greatest city; and half-starved in a land where the law says no one
+shall be destitute of food and shelter. When their lucky fate sends them
+to Norwood, they are generally little personifications of genuine
+poverty—compounds, as somebody says, of ignorance, gin, and sprats.
+
+A number of pauper children having been owned as chargeable upon the
+Central London District, to whom the Norwood School now belongs, and the
+requisite papers having been filled up, they are sent to Weston Hill.
+Arrived there, and their clothes having been steamed, if worth
+preservation, or burned if mere rags,—the new comers are well washed,
+have their hair cut, and are newly clad in clean and wholesome, but
+homely, garments. According to their ages, they are then drafted into a
+class; those between two and six years pass to the infant school; those
+of greater age are enrolled on the industrial side of the establishment.
+Now the training begins. They are all sent before the doctor, who
+usually finds them sallow and sickly; but by aid of Nature’s
+physic,—fresh air,—and Nature’s rule of exercise and regularity,
+assisted by extra diet, and with the occasional aid of some good London
+beef and porter, very few drugs are wanted, and their looks change for
+the better. Early in August, this year,—the period of our visit,—there
+were but two children confined to bed out of more than nine hundred; and
+those two were poor little scrofulous shadows of humanity, such as may
+be found in the top wards of hospitals, labouring under disease of the
+hip and spine,—paying the penalty of sins committed by their parents
+before them. There had recently been an epidemic of measles in the
+place, when that disease destroyed eight of the sickliest out of ninety
+cases. But for this, the mortality would not have gone beyond one in a
+hundred through the year. The summer is their healthiest season; for
+winter brings chilblains, a disease of poor blood, and ophthalmia, to
+which pauper children seem to be especially liable.
+
+After their introduction to the doctor, the bath, the wardrobe, and the
+pantry, they are handed over to the schoolmaster or mistress, as the
+case may be. On the day of our visit, two hundred and forty boys were
+receiving instruction in one large new school-room; two hundred (infants
+between two and six years old) were being taught in another room; two
+hundred girls were reading, writing, and sewing in a third apartment;
+the rest of the occupants being at work, or at drill, or at play, in
+other parts of the establishment. The boys are kept four days a week at
+school, and two days at work in shops which we shall presently see and
+describe: the girls have three days’ schooling and three days’ training
+in household occupations,—such as cleaning the house, washing, ironing,
+mangling, and needlework. The way these portions of the establishment
+are arranged may possibly furnish materials for a future paper.
+
+The school for the eldest boys is a long room newly built, with an
+enormous dormitory above it. The ventilation has been provided for in a
+way that seems very satisfactory. By day the boys are divided into six
+classes, ranged on forms with desks before them, each class being
+separated from the others by a curtain which hangs from the ceiling, and
+is sufficiently wide to separate the sections of scholars from each
+other, and to deaden the sounds of so large a seminary, but yet not wide
+enough to prevent the master as he stands on the side opposite his
+pupils, from getting a view of the entire school. Black boards and large
+slates are amongst the tools employed for conveying instruction, but the
+more advanced pupils are supplied with paper copy-books for writing
+lessons. The school is under the charge of a chief-master, far more
+competent than those usually found in schools beyond the pale of
+Government inspection. He is a B.A. of the University of London, is
+author of a small English grammar; and enjoys, as he deserves, a liberal
+salary. Under his hands the pupils appear to make excellent progress.
+The upper classes write well to dictation, are ready at figures, and are
+practised in the grammatical construction of English words and
+sentences. Twelve of the boys are in training as teachers, and six of
+these are now what is called “pupil-teachers,” and are entitled to an
+allowance of money by way of reward from the Privy Council. This
+allowance is set aside for them till they display, on examination, a
+sufficient proficiency to entitle them to admission to the
+training-school at Knellar Hall or Battersea. Whilst in these higher
+schools they receive the money set aside for them in the earlier stages
+of their school progress, and when, by successive examinations, their
+efficiency is sufficiently tested, they pass from the grade of pupil to
+that of master: the boys from Knellar Hall being appointed schoolmasters
+to Workhouses; the boys from Battersea to be masters of National Schools
+in various parts of the country. A boy gets this promotion in life by
+his own merits. For instance, at the Norwood Pauper-School, the most apt
+pupil becomes, as elsewhere, the monitor of his form or class. When the
+day of examination arrives, he distinguishes himself before the
+Government Inspector of Schools. This official is empowered thereupon to
+select him as a “pupil-teacher,” &c.; he becomes an apprentice to the
+art of instruction. To encourage the chief-master of the school to help
+on his boys to this reward, an allowance of three pounds a year is made
+to the master for each boy who thus distinguishes himself, and thus
+gains promotion. Thus, there being twelve boys at Norwood so in
+training, Mr. Imeson, their instructor, gains thirty-six pounds a year
+for his success in bringing forward that number of his scholars.
+
+In appearance, the boys have little to recommend them, and it is
+tolerably evident, that if not raised a little in the social scale—if
+not taught to do something and know something—they would inevitably
+belong to the class of incurable paupers, who burden poor’s-rates and
+hang about workhouses all their lives. Society must educate such boys,
+if only in self-defence. Some of them are at first most turbulent, but
+by patient management they gradually subside into the orderly
+arrangements of the place, and often those at first most unruly become
+the quickest boys in the school. The energy that would make them
+nuisances, when rightly directed makes them most useful.
+
+When the hours of teaching are over, the boys are assembled in one of
+the large open yards belonging to the establishment, and are there
+exercised by the drill-master. This official is an ex-non-commissioned
+officer of Guards, who in a short time makes the metamorphosis seen on
+parade. The ungainly, slouching, slow lout, is taught to march, wheel
+right or left, in concert with others, punctually and accurately. They
+answer the command, “left wheel,” “right form, four deep,” and so on,
+like little soldiers, and seem to like the fun. This gives them at once
+exercise in the fresh air, notions of regularity and prompt attention,
+and a habit of obedience to discipline.
+
+There is also a naval class. Behind the school is a playground, two
+acres in extent, and in the centre of this stands a ship. True, its deck
+is of earth, but there are bulwarks, real bulwarks all round, and rising
+up above are genuine lofty masts, with rigging complete. Up these ropes
+the boys swarm with great delight. At a given signal they “man the
+yards,” give three miniature cheers, and then, all in chorus, sing God
+save the Queen. They evidently like the fun, pride themselves, boy-like,
+upon their feline power of climbing, and one or two of them show their
+expertness and bravery by disdaining the rope-ladder—pardon us, the
+shrouds—and slide down the main-stay from the top of the foremast to the
+bowsprit. All these things are evident sources of enjoyment; for
+running, and climbing, and shouting in the open air, are natural to the
+human animal in a normal state of existence. Of the climbing, there is a
+story told which illustrates the character of a very worthy man now
+passed away. Dr. Stanley, the late Bishop of Norwich, paid many visits
+to this school, and always looked on with evident pleasure whilst the
+lads were enjoying themselves with their ship. One day the good-natured
+dignitary was looking on, when he began to rub his hands together, and
+presently turning to an officer of the place who stood by, said in a
+genial, half confidential tone, “If I were not a bishop I’d join in and
+climb that pole myself!”
+
+Besides this drill, or parade, and this exercise aloft, the boys, on two
+days of the week, are employed in the Industrial training of the place.
+The smaller boys, in classes of about thirty-five, are ranged on benches
+round a large tailor’s shop. Patterns decorate the walls, and
+“corduroys” in all stages, from the huge bale to the perfect breeches,
+are seen all round the room. The boys stitch and sew, and make and mend,
+under the instruction of a master tailor, a large part of the clothes
+worn in the place. When each boy grows bigger he is drafted into a
+neighbouring shop, where, also, under a competent master, he learns the
+craft of St. Crispin. It is curious to see thirty or forty little
+cobblers, all in rows, waxing and stitching, and hammering on
+lap-stones, and entering _con amore_ into the mysteries of sole and
+upper leathers, brads, pegs, and sparrowbills. When they have learned
+all these things, some of the lads pass into a third shop, where they
+are made acquainted with the forge, and anvil, and sledge hammer, and
+where they help to shoe horses, construct iron bedsteads, and make and
+mend all the iron-work (and there is a great deal of it) required by
+this family party of nearly a thousand souls—pauper children, masters,
+and servants, together. After going through all these stages of
+training, with the incidental knowledge picked up in the stables with
+the horses, in the playground with the dogs, when helping to feed the
+pigs, and whilst aiding the operation of milking the twenty-five cows
+which supply milk for the house, the boys have acquired a great amount
+of useful knowledge. The place is indeed a little colony in itself, and
+if its inmates had not often to pass from it back to the sinkholes of
+London, they might leave Norwood almost with the certainty of becoming
+good and prosperous citizens.
+
+                  *       *       *       *       *
+
+                Monthly Supplement of “HOUSEHOLD WORDS,”
+                      Conducted by CHARLES DICKENS.
+
+
+                       _Price 2d., Stamped, 3d._,
+
+                         THE HOUSEHOLD NARRATIVE
+                                   OF
+                             CURRENT EVENTS.
+
+
+  _The Number, containing a history of the past month, was issued with
+                             the Magazines._
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+                          TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
+
+
+ ● Fixed typos; non-standard spelling and dialect retained.
+ ● Renumbered footnotes.
+ ● Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.
+ ● The caret (^) is used to indicate superscript, whether applied to a
+     single character (as in 2^d) or to an entire expression (as in
+     1^{st}).
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78193 ***
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+    <meta charset="UTF-8">
+    <title>Household Words, No. 23, August 31, 1850 | Project Gutenberg</title>
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+  <body>   
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78193 ***</div>
+
+<div class='tnotes covernote'>
+
+<p class='c000'><strong>Transcriber’s Note:</strong></p>
+
+<p class='c000'>New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the public domain.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<div class='titlepage double'>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c001'>
+    <div>“<i>Familiar in their Mouths as HOUSEHOLD WORDS.</i>”—<span class='sc'>Shakespeare.</span></div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<div>
+  <span class='pageno' id='Page_529'>529</span>
+  <h1 class='c002'>HOUSEHOLD WORDS.<br> <span class='xlarge'>A WEEKLY JOURNAL.</span></h1>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c001'>
+    <div><span class='large'>CONDUCTED BY CHARLES DICKENS.</span></div>
+    <div class='c001'>N<sup>o.</sup> 23.]&#8196; &#8196; &#8196; SATURDAY, AUGUST 31, 1850.&#8196; &#8196; &#8196; [<span class='sc'>Price</span> 2<i>d.</i></div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+</div>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 class='c003'>A PAPER-MILL.</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c004'>Down at Dartford in Kent, on a fine bright
+day, I strolled through the pleasant green
+lanes, on my way to a Paper-Mill. Accustomed,
+mainly, to associate Dartford with
+Gunpowder Mills, and formidable tin canisters,
+illustrated in copper-plate, with the outpourings
+of a generous cornucopia of dead
+game, I found it pleasant to think, on a
+summer morning when all living creatures
+were enjoying life, that it was only paper in
+my mind—not powder.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>If sturdy Wat Tyler, of this very town of
+Dartford in Kent (Deptford had the honour of
+him once, but that was a mistake) could only
+have anticipated and reversed the precept of
+the pious Orange-Lodges; if he could only
+have put his trust in Providence, and kept his
+paper damp—for printing—he need never
+have marched to London, the captain of a
+hundred thousand men, and summarily beheaded
+the archbishop of Canterbury as a
+bad adviser of the young king, Richard. Then,
+would William Walworth, Lord Mayor of
+London (and an obsequious courtier enough,
+may be) never have struck him from his
+charger, unawares. Then, might the “general
+enfranchisement of all bondmen”—the bold
+smith’s demand—have come, a long time
+sooner than it did. Then, might working-men
+have maintained the decency and honour of
+their daughters, through many a hazy score of
+troubled and oppressive years, when they were
+yet as the clods of the valley, broken by the
+ploughshare, worried by the harrow. But, in
+those days, paper and printing for the people
+were not; so, Wat lay low in Smithfield, and
+Heaven knows what became of his daughter,
+and the old ferocious wheel went driving
+round, some centuries longer.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>The wild flowers were blowing in these
+Dartford hedges, all those many summertimes;
+the larks were singing, high in air; the
+trees were rustling as they rustle to-day; the
+bees went humming by; the light clouds cast
+their shadows on the verdant fields. The pleasant
+little river Darent ran the same course;
+sparkled in the same sun; had, then as now,
+its tiny circles made by insects; and its plumps
+and plashes, made by fish. But, the river has
+changed, since Wat the Blacksmith, bending
+over with his bucket, saw his grimy face, impatient
+of unjust and grievous tribute, making
+remonstrance with him for his long endurance.
+Now, there are indeed books in the running
+brooks—for they go to feed the Paper-Mill.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Time was, in the old Saxon days, when
+there stood a Mill here, “held in ferm by a
+Reve,” but <i>that</i> was not a Paper-Mill. Then,
+came a Nunnery, with kings’ fair daughters in
+it; then, a Palace; then, Queen Elizabeth, in
+her sixteenth year, to sojourn at the Palace
+two days; then, in that reign, a Paper-Mill.
+In the church yonder, hidden behind the
+trees, with many rooks discoursing in their
+lofty houses between me and it, is the tomb
+of Sir John Spielman, jeweller to the Queen
+when she had grown to be a dame of a
+shrewd temper, aged fifty or so: who “built
+a Paper-Mill for the making of writing-paper,”
+and to whom his Royal Mistress was pleased
+to grant a license “for the sole gathering for
+ten years of all rags, &#38;c., necessary for the
+making of such paper.” There is a legend
+that the same Sir John, in coming here from
+Germany, to build his Mill, did bring with
+him two young lime-trees—then unknown in
+England—which he set before his Dartford
+dwelling-house, and which did flourish exceedingly;
+so, that they fanned him with their
+shadows, when he lay asleep in the upper story,
+an ancient gentleman. Now, God rest the
+soul of Sir John Spielman, for the love of all
+the sweet-smelling lime-trees that have ever
+greeted me in the land, and all the writing-paper
+I have ever blotted!</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>But, as I turn down by the hawthorn
+hedge into the valley, a sound comes in my
+ears—like the murmuring and throbbing of a
+mighty giant, labouring hard—that would have
+unbraced all the Saxon bows, and shaken all
+the heads off Temple Bar and London Bridge,
+ever lifted to those heights from the always
+butchering, always craving, never sufficiently-to-be-regretted,
+brave old English Block. It
+is the noise of the Steam Engine. And now,
+before me, white and clean without, and
+radiant in the sun, with the sweet clear river
+tumbling merrily down to kiss it, and help in
+the work it does, is the Paper-Mill I have
+come to see!</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>It is like the Mill of the child’s story, that
+ground old people young. Paper! White,
+pure, spick and span new paper, with that
+fresh smell which takes us back to school and
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_530'>530</span>school-books; can it ever come from rags like
+these? Is it from such bales of dusty rags,
+native and foreign, of every colour and of
+every kind, as now environ us, shutting out
+the summer air and putting cotton into our
+summer ears, that virgin paper, to be written
+on, and printed on, proceeds? We shall see
+presently. Enough to consider, at present,
+what a grave of dress this rag-store is; what a
+lesson of vanity it preaches. The coarse blouse
+of the Flemish labourer, and the fine cambric
+of the Parisian lady, the court dress of the
+Austrian jailer, and the miserable garb of the
+Italian peasant; the woollen petticoat of
+the Bavarian girl, the linen head-dress of the
+Neapolitan woman, the priest’s vestment,
+the player’s robe, the Cardinal’s hat, and the
+ploughman’s nightcap; all dwindle down to
+this, and bring their littleness or greatness in
+fractional portions here. As it is with the worn,
+it shall be with the wearers; but there shall
+be no dust in our eyes then, though there is
+plenty now. Not all the great ones of the
+earth will raise a grain of it, and nothing but
+the Truth will be.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>My conductor leads the way into another
+room. I am to go, as the rags go, regularly
+and systematically through the Mill. I am
+to suppose myself a bale of rags. I <i>am</i> rags.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Here, in another room, are some three-score
+women at little tables, each with an awful
+scythe-shaped knife standing erect upon it,
+and looking like the veritable tooth of time.
+I am distributed among these women, and
+worried into smaller shreds—torn cross-wise
+at the knives. Already I begin to lose something
+of my grosser nature. The room is
+filled with my finest dust, and, as gratings of
+me drop from the knives, they fall through the
+perforated surface of the tables into receptacles
+beneath. When I am small enough, I am
+bundled up, carried away in baskets, and
+stowed in immense bins, until they want me
+in the Boiling-Room.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>The Boiling-Room has enormous cauldrons
+in it, each with its own big lid, hanging to
+the beams of the roof, and put on by machinery
+when it is full. It is a very clean place,
+“coddled” by much boiling, like a washer-woman’s
+fingers, and looks as if the kitchen of
+the Parish Union had gone into partnership
+with the Church Belfry. Here, I am pressed,
+and squeezed, and jammed, a dozen feet deep, I
+should think, into my own particular cauldron;
+where I simmer, boil, and stew, a long, long
+time. Then, I am a dense, tight mass, cut out
+in pieces like so much clay—very clean—faint
+as to my colour—greatly purified—and gradually
+becoming quite ethereal.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>In this improved condition, I am taken to
+the Cutting-Room. I am very grateful to
+the clear fresh water, for the good it has
+done me; and I am glad to be put into
+some more of it, and subjected to the action
+of large rollers filled with transverse knives,
+revolving by steam power upon iron beds,
+which favour me with no fewer than two
+million cuts per minute, though, within the
+memory of man, the functions of this machine
+were performed by an ordinary pestle and
+mortar. Such a drumming and rattling, such
+a battering and clattering, such a delight in
+cutting and slashing, not even the Austrian
+part of me ever witnessed before. This continues,
+to my great satisfaction, until I look
+like shaving lather; when I am run off into
+chambers underneath, to have my friend the
+water, from whom I am unwilling to be separated,
+drained out of me.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>At this time, my colour is a light blue, if I
+have indigo in me, or a pale fawn, if I am rags
+from which the dyes have been expelled. As
+it is necessary to bleach the fawn-coloured
+pulp (the blue being used for paper of that
+tint), and as I <i>am</i> fawn-coloured pulp, I am
+placed in certain stone chambers, like catacombs,
+hermetically sealed, excepting the first
+compartment, which communicates with a
+gasometer containing manganese, vitriol, and
+salt. From these ingredients, a strong gas
+(not agreeable, I must say, to the sense of
+smell) is generated, and forced through all
+the chambers, each of which communicates
+with the other. These continue closed, if I
+remember right, some four-and-twenty hours,
+when a man opens them and takes to his
+heels immediately, to avoid the offensive gas
+that rushes out. After I have been aired a
+little, I am again conveyed (quite white now,
+and very spiritual indeed) to some more
+obliging rollers upstairs.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>At it these grinders go, “Munch, munch,
+munch!” like the sailor’s wife in <span class='sc'>Macbeth</span>,
+who had chesnuts in her lap. I look, at first, as
+if I were the most delicious curds and whey;
+presently, I find that I am changed to gruel—not
+thin oatmeal gruel, but rich, creamy,
+tempting, exalted gruel! As if I had been
+made from pearls, which some voluptuous
+Mr. Emden had converted into groats!</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>And now, I am ready to undergo my last
+astounding transformation, and be made into
+paper by the machine. Oh what can I say
+of the wonderful machine, which receives me,
+at one end of a long room, gruel, and dismisses
+me at the other, paper!</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Where is the subtle mind of this Leviathan
+lodged? It must be somewhere—in a cylinder,
+a pipe, a wheel—or how could it ever do
+with me the miracles it does! How could it
+receive me on a sheet of wire-gauze, in my
+gruel-form, and slide me on, gradually assuming
+consistency—gently becoming a little
+paper-like, a little more, a little more still,
+very paper-like, indeed—clinging to wet
+blankets, holding tight by other surfaces,
+smoothly ascending Witney hills, lightly
+coming down into a woolly open country,
+easily rolling over and under a planetary system
+of heated cylinders, large and small, and
+ever growing, as I proceed, stronger and
+more paper-like! How does the power that
+fights the wintry waves on the Atlantic, and
+cuts and drills adamantine slabs of metal like
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_531'>531</span>cheese, how does it draw me out, when I
+am frailest and most liable to tear, so tenderly
+and delicately, that a woman’s hand—no,
+even though I were a man, very ill and helpless,
+and she may nurse who loved me—could
+never touch me with so light a touch, or with
+a movement so unerring! How can I believe,
+even on experience, that, being of itself insensible,
+and only informed with intellect at
+second hand, it changes me, in less time than
+I take to tell it, into any sort of paper that
+is wanted, dries me, cuts me into lengths,
+becomes charged, just before dismissing me,
+with electricity, and gathers up the hair of
+the attendant-watcher, as if with horror at
+the mischiefs and desertions from the right, in
+which I may be instrumental! Above all,
+how can I reconcile its being mere machinery,
+with its leaving off when it has cut me into
+sheets, and <span class='fss'>NOT</span> conveying me to the Exciseman
+in the next room, whom it plainly thinks
+a most unnatural conclusion!</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>I am carried thither on trucks. I am examined,
+and my defective portions thrown
+out, for the Mill, again; I am made up into
+quires and reams; I am weighed and excised
+by the hundredweight; and I am ready for
+my work. Of my being made the subject of
+nonsensical defences of Excise duty, in the
+House of Commons, I need say nothing. All
+the world knows that when the Right Honourable
+the Chancellor of the Exchequer, for the
+time being, says I am only the worse by a
+duty of fifteen shillings per hundredweight,
+he is a Wrong Honourable, and either don’t
+know, or don’t care, anything about me.
+For, he leaves out of consideration all the
+vexatious, depressing, and preventing influences
+of Excise Duty on any trade, and all
+the extra cost and charge of packing and
+unpacking, carrying and re-carrying, imposed
+upon the manufacturer, and of course upon
+the public. But we must have it, in future,
+even with Right Honourables as with birds.
+The Chancellor of the Exchequer that can
+sing, and won’t sing, must be made to sing—small.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>My metempsychosis ends with the manufacture.
+I am rags no more, but a visitor
+to the Paper-Mill. I am a pleased visitor
+to see the Mill in such beautiful order, and
+the workpeople so thriving; and I think that
+my good friend the owner has reason for
+saying with an agreeable smile, as we come
+out upon the sparkling stream again, that he
+is never so contented, as when he is in rags.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Shining up in the blue sky, far above the
+Paper-Mill, a mere speck in the distance, is
+a Paper Kite. It is an appropriate thing at
+the moment—not to swear by (we have enough
+of that already) but to hope by, with a devout
+heart. May all the Paper that I sport with,
+soar as innocently upward as the paper
+kite, and be as harmless to the holder as the
+kite is to the boy! May it bring, to some few
+minds, such fresh associations; and to me no
+worse remembrances than the kite that once
+plucked at my own hand like an airy friend.
+May I always recollect that paper has a
+mighty Duty, set forth in no Schedule of
+Excise, and that its names are love, forbearance,
+mercy, progress, scorn of the Hydra
+Cant with all its million heads!</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>So, back by the green lanes, and the old
+Priory—a farm now, and none the worse
+for that—and away among the lime-trees,
+thinking of Sir John.</p>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 class='c003'>CHEERFUL ARITHMETIC.</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c004'>“Competition is fast crushing us!” the
+tradesman exclaims as he drives you out to
+his elegant villa behind his seventy-guinea
+gelding. “Wheat at forty shillings a quarter is
+ruin!” groans the farmer, while dallying with
+his champagne glass. “<i>We</i> are all going to
+the workhouse.”—“A diamond necklace, my
+dear?” replies the mill-owner to a lovely
+Lancashire witch, whose smile is on other
+occasions law—“What? two hundred pounds
+for a bauble, while calico is only three farthings
+a yard, and cotton-spinning on the brink of
+bankruptcy. Impossible!” Should these
+gentlemen ever meet it is ten to one that on
+comparing notes they resolve unanimously
+that the whole country is going to the dogs;
+but it is also ten to one that this resolution is
+passed at a public dinner to which they have
+each cheerfully contributed one-pound-one:
+besides another guinea to the occasion of
+the feast:—some plethoric, bloated, routine
+charity.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Considering their patriotic despondency in
+regard to the utterly hopeless condition of the
+nation, it is wonderful to observe the contented
+complacency with which these gentlemen
+eat their filberts and sip their claret.
+Neither is this stoic philosophy confined to
+them alone. All sorts of predicted want and
+impending misery are borne with exemplary
+fortitude by all sorts of Englishmen. The
+skilful artisan seldom allows a week to pass
+without deploring the inadequacy of wages;
+but, although he manages to get a good Sunday’s
+dinner some fifty times a year, and once
+or twice in the twelvemonth indulges his
+family with a healthful pleasure trip in the
+country, he is able to scrape up a few pounds
+in the savings’ bank. Yet if you ask him
+touching the state of things in his particular
+line, he will tell you that “Times never were
+so bad.” So universally is the propensity to
+depreciate things as they are, that if a commission
+were appointed to inquire into the state
+of the nation, their report, if derived solely
+from the evidence of well-to-do witnesses,
+would be lugubrious in the extreme. It is
+only the very poor who gaze cheerfully into
+the future; for their existence is a condition
+of hope. They apprehend nothing, for they
+have nothing to lose; whatever change fortune
+may bring, must be, they believe, for the
+better.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Happily, better testimony, to the real condition
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_532'>532</span>of the industrious classes is producible
+than that dark cloud of witnesses who speak
+out of the fulness of an Englishman’s privilege—grumbling.
+That testimony has been
+lucidly sifted, and was adduced by Mr. G. R.
+Porter at the recent meeting of the British
+Association in Edinburgh. It consisted—in
+proof of the well-being and continued progress
+of our country—of a comparison between
+the income tax returns in respect of incomes
+derived from trades and professions in 1812,
+and the like returns in 1848, excluding from
+the former period the incomes below one
+hundred and fifty pounds; which, under the
+existing law, are allowed to pass untaxed.
+The total amount thus assessed, after deducting
+exemptions, was, in 1812, about twenty-one
+millions and a quarter; while, in 1848,
+the amount was nearly fifty-seven millions;
+showing an increase, in thirty-six years, of
+about thirty-five millions and three-quarters,
+or one hundred and sixty-eight per cent.;
+being at the rate of upwards of four and a half
+per cent., yearly:—an increase very nearly
+three-fold greater than the increase during the
+same period of the population of Great Britain;
+where, alone, the income tax flourishes in full
+bloom.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>But how has this three-fold prosperity been
+distributed? Have the rich grown richer,
+and the poor, poorer; or has Fortune taken
+off her bandage and rewarded honest industry,
+with a discriminating hand? Have
+the bulk of the people shared in the productive
+wealth which thirty-six years have
+accumulated? In order to answer these
+questions, Mr. Porter entered into a series of
+elaborate and interesting calculations, which
+prove the pleasing fact that the great progressive
+wealth <i>has</i> been shared among the
+middle and working classes.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>He found that the returns of 1812 as well
+as those of 1848 gave the sums assessed to
+Income Tax in various classes; and, for the purpose
+of his examination, he distinguished the
+incomes thus given:—those between one hundred
+and fifty pounds and five hundred pounds;
+those between five hundred pounds and one
+thousand pounds; incomes between one thousand
+pounds and two thousand pounds; incomes
+between two thousand pounds and five
+thousand pounds; and those above five thousand
+pounds. Adhering strictly to these distinctions,
+Mr. Porter perceived, in 1848, a positive
+increase in incomes between one hundred and
+fifty and five hundred pounds per annum, of
+thirteen millions seven hundred thousand
+pounds, over the incomes assessed in 1812.
+Between five hundred pounds and one thousand
+pounds per annum, the increase since
+1812 has been five millions. On incomes between
+one thousand pounds and two thousand
+pounds, and incomes between two thousand
+pounds and five thousand pounds, there is an
+increase of upwards of four millions respectively;
+while in the highest class, which
+includes all incomes above five thousand
+pounds per annum, the increase is found to
+be no more than eight millions and three-quarters.
+Comparing the highest with the
+lowest class, the increase has been greater
+in the lowest by nearly five millions—or fifty-six
+per cent.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>This improvement in circumstances, however,
+descends to no lower a class of society
+than persons in the receipt of at least one
+hundred and fifty pounds per annum. It was
+necessary to dig a little lower in the strata of
+private circumstances, in order to show the
+progress of wealth among the working classes;
+and Mr. Porter had recourse to the returns
+from savings’ banks; these being chiefly used
+by the humbler orders. From data thus derived
+it was ascertained, that, while the deposits in
+England, Wales, and Ireland, proportioned to
+the whole population, amounted in 1831 to
+twelve shillings and eightpence per head; in
+1848 they had risen to twenty shillings and
+eleven-pence per individual. The largest
+amount of these savings occurred in 1846;
+when they reached, in England alone, to more
+than twenty-six millions and three-quarters,
+and in the three Kingdoms, to more than
+thirty-one millions seven hundred thousand
+pounds, being equal to twenty-four shillings
+per head on the population of England, Wales,
+and Ireland, and ten shillings and one penny
+per head on that of Scotland.<a id='r1'></a><a href='#f1' class='c006'><sup>[1]</sup></a></p>
+
+<div class='footnote' id='f1'>
+<p class='c005'><a href='#r1'>1</a>. The comparative smallness of the deposits in Scotland
+arises from two causes: first, the system of allowing interest
+upon very small sums deposited in private and joint-stock
+banks; and, secondly, the more recent connexion of savings’
+banks with the Government in that division of the kingdom.
+Hence, there is no reason for supposing that the
+labouring-classes of Scotland are less saving than those of
+England or Ireland.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c005'>The exceeding moderation of this estimate
+will be observed when we mention another
+description of savings’ banks which Mr.
+Porter has taken no account of—we mean
+Friendly Societies. Of these, there are fourteen
+thousand in Great Britain, regularly
+enrolled according to Act of Parliament, consisting
+of one million six hundred thousand
+members, with a gross annual revenue of two
+millions eight hundred thousand, and accumulated
+capital amounting to six millions four
+hundred thousand pounds sterling. To this
+must be added the capital belonging to unenrolled
+benefit societies (exclusive of those in
+Ireland), which has been estimated at a
+greater amount than those which exist “as
+the Act directs;” namely, at nine millions
+sterling, belonging to two millions and a half
+of members. It is indeed a most gratifying
+proof of the prudential, and therefore moral,
+as well as pecuniary advance which this
+country has made during the past thirty
+years, that half our labouring male population
+belong to Friendly Societies. The operative
+classes of Great Britain alone possess, at
+this moment, capital in savings’ banks and
+friendly societies, the total of which reaches
+the enormous sum of forty-two millions of
+money. How very like national ruin <i>this</i> looks!</p>
+
+<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_533'>533</span>In further proof of the greater distribution
+of means among the humbler than the higher
+orders, we can turn once more to Mr. Porter,
+who assures us that in proportion as the
+savings of the industrious poor have augmented,
+the dividends received at the Bank
+by the “comfortable” and the rich have
+decreased.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>The test of the dividend-books of the Bank
+of England, to which Mr. Porter next brought
+his calculations, varies essentially from that
+afforded by the progress of savings’ banks;
+inasmuch as it excludes all evidence of actual
+saving or accumulation, while it offers a
+strictly comparative view of such saving as
+between different classes of the community.
+The accounts furnished to Parliament by the
+Bank of the number of persons entitled to
+dividends upon portions of the public debt,
+divide the fund-holders into ten classes, according
+to the amount of which they are so
+entitled. Mr. Porter contrasted the numbers
+in each class as they stood on the 5th of April
+and 5th of July of the years 1831 and 1848,
+respectively. He then went on to show, that
+there has been a very large addition between
+1831 and 1848 to the number of persons
+receiving under five pounds at each payment
+of dividends, and a small increase upon
+the number receiving between five pounds
+and ten pounds, while, with the exception of
+the largest holders—those whose dividends
+exceed two thousand pounds at each payment,
+and of whom there has been an increase of
+five—every other class has experienced a considerable
+decrease in its numbers. There
+has been a diminution of more than Eight
+per cent. in the numbers receiving between
+three hundred pounds and five hundred
+pounds; of Twelve and a half per cent. of
+those receiving between five hundred pounds
+and one thousand pounds; and of more than
+Twenty per cent. among holders of stock
+yielding dividends between one thousand
+pounds and two thousand pounds; this would
+seem conclusively to prove that, at least as
+respects this mode of disposing of accumulations,
+there is not any reason to believe
+that the already rich are acquiring greater
+wealth at the expense of the rest of the
+community.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>All evidence proves, then, that the great
+accession of wealth which has been accumulated
+in this country during the past thirty
+years, has been most distributed amongst
+the middle classes. The natural effect of a
+change from agricultural to manufacturing
+industry—a change which has come over this
+country during the roll of a single century—is
+to increase the wealth of the manufacturing
+and trading elements of the community,
+in proportion as these are called into activity.
+The “great fortunes” of the old time were
+nobles and land-holders; the millionaires of
+to-day are merchants, bankers, and mill-owners.
+Forty years ago a rich retail tradesman
+was a rarity; his dealings with the
+wholesale trade were chiefly carried on by
+means of bills at long dates, in which large
+sums were included for risk and interest;
+charges which decreased his profits, and
+increased the price of all articles to the consumer.
+Now the more frequent rule amongst
+retailers is prompt payment, discounts in their
+own favour, and affluence. In our “nation
+of shopkeepers,” it is industry which has
+prospered and had its reward.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Turning from the British Association to the
+Poor-Law Board—from Mr. Porter to Mr.
+Baines—we shall see that in the scramble for
+wealth, pauperism itself has benefited; that,
+in fact, the highest grades in the scale of
+society have benefited as little as the very
+lowest. It is true that in the progress of
+accumulation by manufactures, the necessity
+of bringing large masses of operatives into
+confined <i>foci</i>, and of providing work for them
+at all times and seasons, has caused temporary
+spasms of poverty, that have occasionally
+almost defied relief; but despite the rapid
+increase of the population, the ranks of what
+may be called permanent pauperism have not
+been augmented. Consequently the increased
+wealth of the country has descended even to the
+lowest ranks of the people. In the year 1813,
+when the population of England and Wales
+was only ten millions, the sum expended
+for the relief of the poor amounted to six
+millions and a half sterling. From the
+return of the Poor-Law Board, now before
+us, it appears that during the year which
+ended on Lady Day, 1849, and with a population
+in England and Wales of one-third
+more—or nearly fifteen millions—the exactions
+for poors’-rates amounted to no more
+than five millions, seven hundred and ninety-two
+thousand, nine hundred and sixty-three
+pounds—three-quarters of a million less
+than was drawn for the pauperism of 1813.
+The poor have ceased to regard the rich, as a
+class, as their natural enemies. We hear no
+more, now, of a “grinding oligarchy.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Besides the decrease of poor rates, other taxes
+have diminished. Let the three grumblers
+with whom we started be pleased to remember
+that, no longer ago than 1815, when war had
+done its worst on the lives and fortunes of
+our fathers, they were taxed at the enormous
+rate of five pounds four shillings and ten pence
+a head to each individual of the population,
+from the centegenarian to the latest born
+baby; while we, in this day and generation
+of “ruin,” pay per head, only fifty shillings
+and eleven-pence, or scarcely one-half.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>It is the strength and safeguard of the
+English nation, that its most prominent elements
+are industry and commerce; for, tending
+as they do, to the general dissemination, as
+well as to the general accumulation of wealth,
+they effect a fusion of interests—a union of
+classes, and a dependence of each upon the
+others—which is true national power. At
+the moment at which we write, we learn
+from local sources of information, the accuracy
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_534'>534</span>of which we have never had occasion to question,
+that skilled labour of nearly every kind
+is in demand in the manufacturing districts;
+and that all sorts of capable “hands” can
+have work. Everything indicates improvement.
+If, indeed, our friends the Croakers
+will only look their phantom “Ruin” boldly
+in the face, his gaunt form will soon assume
+the smiling semblance of Prosperity.</p>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 class='c003'>AN EMIGRANT AFLOAT.</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c004'>I knew very little of the sea when I determined
+to emigrate. Like most emigrants,
+I thought beforehand more of the dangers
+than of the disagreeables of this voyage; but
+found, when actually at sea, that its disagreeables
+seemed more formidable than its
+dangers. I shall describe the voyage, in
+order that those who follow me may know
+precisely what it is that they have to encounter,
+satisfied as I am, that nothing will
+tend more to conduce to the comforts of the
+emigrant at sea, than his being able to take a
+full and accurate measure of its disagreeable
+as well as its agreeable accompaniments,
+before stepping on board.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>It was late in the afternoon of a bright
+May day, when the Seagull, 480 tons register,
+and bound for Quebec, spread her wings to
+the wind, after having been towed out of the
+harbour of Greenock. A gentle breeze
+carried her smoothly by the point of Gourock,
+the Holy Loch, Dunoon, and other places
+familiar to the tourist on the noble Frith of
+Clyde. We were off the neat little town of
+Largs, when the shadows of evening thickened
+around us. I was one of more than a hundred
+steerage passengers, most of whom soon afterwards
+went below for the night, many with
+heavy hearts, thinking that they had seen the
+last glimpses of their native land.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>I remained long enough on deck to perceive
+the approach of a marked change in the
+weather. We were still landlocked, when the
+wind veered round to the west, directly ahead
+of us. It increased so rapidly in violence,
+that by the time we were off Brodick, in the
+Island of Arran, it was blowing more than
+half a gale. As we tacked to and fro to
+gain the open sea, the vessel laboured heavily,
+and I soon felt sufficiently squeamish to
+descend and seek refuge in my berth. Here a
+scene awaited me for which I was but little
+prepared. With very few exceptions, all
+below were far advanced in sea-sickness.
+Some were groaning in their berths; others
+were lying upon the floor, in a semi-torpid
+state; and others, again, were retching incessantly.
+What a contrast was the Seagull
+then, to the neat, tempting picture she presented
+when lying quietly in dock, and when,
+as I paced her white, dry, warm, sunny decks,
+visions filled my mind of the pleasant days at
+sea before me, when, reclining on the cordage,
+beneath the shelter of the bulwarks, I could
+read the live-long day, whilst the stout ship
+sped merrily on her voyage. Delightful
+anticipations! Let no one be extravagant in
+forming them, unless he has a preference for
+disappointment. My faith in the romance of
+the sea was greatly shaken by my first night’s
+experiences on board, and it soon received a
+fatal blow from the commotion which was
+being gradually engendered within my own
+frame, and which, at length, resulted in a
+catastrophe. I could not sleep, for as the
+gale increased, so did the noises within and
+without. I could hear the heavy wind
+whistling mournfully through the damp,
+tight-drawn cordage, and the waves breaking
+in successive showers on the deck overhead.
+It made my flesh creep, too, to hear the water
+trickling by my very ear, as it rushed along
+outside the two-inch plank which (pleasing
+thought) was all that separated me from
+destruction. As the storm gained upon us,
+the ship laboured more and more heavily,
+until, at length, with each lurch which she
+made, everything moveable in the steerage
+rolled about from side to side on the floor.
+Pots and pans, trunks, boxes, and pieces of
+crockery kept up a most noisy dance for the
+entire night, their respective owners being so
+ill as to be utterly indifferent to the fate of
+their property. In the midst of the horrid
+din, I could distinguish the distressing groan
+of the strong man prostrated by sea-sickness,
+the long-drawn sigh and scarcely audible
+complaint of the woman, and the sickly wail
+of the neglected child; and, that nothing
+might be wanting to heighten the horrors of
+the scene, we were all this time in perfect
+darkness, every light on board having been
+extinguished for hours.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Morning was far advanced as I fell into a
+fitful and feverish sleep. On awaking, I found
+all as still as before leaving port. My fellow-passengers
+were all on deck; and I hurried
+up after them to ascertain the cause of the
+change. It was soon explained. The gale
+had, at length, become so violent, that the
+ship had put back for shelter, and was now
+lying quietly at anchor in the beautiful bay
+of Rothesay.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>But what a change had, in the meantime,
+taken place in the appearance of my fellow-passengers.
+The buoyant air of yesterday
+had disappeared; and those who were then
+in ruddy health, now looked pale and woebegone.
+Such was the effect of our night’s
+prostration.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>For my own part, I began to feel that I
+had already had enough of the sea, and
+heartily wished myself safe ashore on the
+banks of the St. Lawrence. I had formerly
+experienced a sort of enthusiasm in listening
+to such songs, as “The sea, the sea, the open
+sea!” “A life on the ocean wave!” &#38;c., &#38;c.
+But had anyone on board now struck up
+either of them, I should assuredly have set him
+down for a maniac. We remained for two
+days in Rothesay Bay, waiting for a change
+of wind, during which time we recruited
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_535'>535</span>our spirits—and water, a fresh stock of which
+we shipped. It was not, therefore, without
+some of the lightness of heart, which had
+characterised our first start, that, on the morning
+of the third day, we made way again for
+the New World. But it seemed as if we were
+never to get rid of the coast, for we were
+overtaken by a dead calm off Ailsa, causing
+delay for ten days more sweltering under a
+hot sun, within half a mile of that lonely and
+stupendous rock. On the evening of the
+second day a gentle breeze from the northeast
+carried us out of the Channel, and next
+morning found us with all sail set, speeding
+westward, with the Irish coast on our lee.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>We were a very mixed company in the
+steerage. Some had been farmers, and were
+going out to try their hands at agriculture in
+the wilds of Canada. Others had been servants,
+predial and domestic, and were on their
+way in search of better fortunes in the New
+World, although they had not yet made up their
+minds as to the precise manner in which they
+were to woo the fickle dame. We had a brace
+of wives on board who were proceeding to
+join their husbands in Canada, who had prudently
+preceded their families, and prepared
+for their advent, by constructing a home for
+them in the woods. There was an old man
+with a slender capital, who was emigrating at
+an advanced period of life, that he might
+make a better provision for his grandson, a
+lusty youth of about seventeen, of whom he
+seemed doatingly fond. We had also amongst
+us a large family from Edinburgh, of that
+class of people who have “seen better days,”
+who were hurrying across the Atlantic in the
+hope of at least catching a glimpse of them
+again. Besides the father and mother, there
+were several sons and two daughters, the
+eldest son having duly qualified himself for
+the honour of writing W. S. after his name—a
+nominal appendage which he would find of
+far less value to him than a good axe in the
+woods. We had a clergyman, too, of the
+poorer class, in worldly circumstances, who
+had been accredited as a missionary to the
+Canadian wilds. I must not overlook four or
+five infants, the precise ownership of which
+I never thoroughly traced, they were so
+tumbled about from one to another; and
+which generally of nights favoured us with
+prolonged choruses of the most enlivening
+description.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Thus mixed and assorted, the first few days
+passed off agreeably enough to such as were
+proof against a relapse of sea-sickness. When
+it was not blowing too strong, the deck was
+a pleasant place for exercise, which is necessary
+to comfort, as it is generally cold and
+disagreeable at sea, except when calm, and
+then one is annoyed, whilst being broiled, at
+the thought of making no progress. The chief
+occupation on board, seemed to be that of
+cooking and eating. The cooking apparatus
+for the steerage was on deck; each family, and
+each individual who had no family, was continually
+cooking for themselves. As the accommodation
+for cooking was not very ample for
+upwards of a hundred passengers, there was
+scarcely an hour of the day between sunrise
+and sunset, that was not witness to the progress
+of some culinary operations—men, women,
+and children were constantly appearing and
+disappearing at the hatchways with pots,
+saucepans, kettles, and other utensils; and
+it was not long ere some began to fear,
+having made but little account of the voracity
+of appetite engendered by convalescence
+after sea-sickness, that their stock of
+provisions would prove rather scanty for the
+voyage.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Perhaps the greatest privation to which the
+poor steerage passenger is subjected, is in connection
+with the water which he uses for
+drinking and in some of his cooking processes.
+As the voyage may be protracted beyond
+reasonable calculation, an extra supply of
+fresh water is or should be laid in to meet
+such an emergency. To preserve this extra
+stock from becoming impure, different devices
+are resorted to,—such as impregnating it with
+lime, large quantities of which are thrown
+into each cask. Were this the case only with
+the extra stock, the comfort of the passenger
+might, for a time at least, be unimpaired in
+this respect; but the misfortune is, that all the
+water for steerage consumption, immediate
+and contingent, is treated in the same way;
+so that the emigrant is scarcely out of harbour,
+when he finds the water of which he
+makes use not only extremely unpalatable to
+drink, but in such a state as to spoil every
+decoction into which it enters. Fancy a cup
+of tea without cream, but with sugar and
+coarse lime, in about equal proportions, to
+flavour it. The most unquestionable sloe
+leaves might, under such circumstances, pass
+for young hyson, and the worst of chicory
+for the best of coffee. This sorely discomfited
+the more elderly of the females on board,
+whose cup of life was poisoned by very thin
+mortar.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>On the fifth day out, after gaining the open
+sea, we were overtaken by a tremendous gale,
+which did us considerable damage. I was
+standing near the forecastle, when a heavy
+block dropped from aloft with terrific force at
+my feet. I had scarcely recovered from my
+fright, when crash after crash over head,
+making me run under the jolly boat in terror.
+For a moment afterwards all was still, and then
+arose a tremendous uproar on board, officers
+giving all sorts of directions at once, and sailors
+running about, and jumping over each other to
+obey them. When I ventured to peep out from
+my place of safety, a sad spectacle of wreck and
+ruin presented itself to me. On our lee, masts,
+ropes, spars, and sails were floating alongside
+on the uneasy waters. Our fore-top-mast
+had given way, and in falling overboard,
+had dragged the maintop-gallant mast and
+the greater part of our bowsprit along
+with it. Sails and rigging went of course
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_536'>536</span>with the wreck, which was provoking, as the
+wind was a-beam and so far favourable.
+We soon hauled the wreck on board, however,
+and in the course of two or three days,
+with the aid of the carpenter, the dismantled
+ship was re-rigged in a very creditable
+manner.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>We had scarcely yet put to rights, when a
+vessel made up to us bound westward like ourselves.
+What a sight to the lonely wanderers
+on the ocean is a ship at sea!—it seems like a
+herald coming to you from the world, from
+which you are seemingly cut off for ever. It is
+a sight which must be seen to be appreciated.
+She was labouring heavily on our lee, and
+every now and then her whole keel became
+visible to us. To this, one of the passengers
+very innocently directed attention, much to
+the horror of the second mate, who smartly
+rebuked the offender; it being, he said, not
+only indelicate, but perilous to own having
+seen the keel of any ship under canvas. We
+all, of course, admitted the reasonableness of
+this caution, and strictly observed it.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>The ship was no sooner repaired, than the
+wind, which had abated a little, seemed to
+redouble its fury. We were now in the
+midst of a terrible storm, and great was the
+commotion in the steerage. Some moaned
+in pain—others screamed occasionally in
+terror—whilst one old lady was constantly
+inquiring in a most piteous voice, if there was
+not one good man on board, for whose sake
+the rest might be saved. On making the
+inquiry of a rough, but good-natured tar, he
+rebuked her scepticism, and referred her to
+the minister. We had two sailors on board,
+named Peter. One was an ordinary looking
+mortal, from whom the other was distinguished
+by the appellation of Peter the Leerer, a name
+having reference to the extraordinary facial
+phenomena which he exhibited. On the point
+of his nose was an enormous wart, the counterpart
+of which had taken possession of his
+chin. He had likewise one, but of smaller
+dimensions, on either cheek, only wanting one
+on his forehead, to complete the diagram; a
+want, which, for most of the voyage, was providentially
+made up by a large pimple, which
+underlay his bump of benevolence. Add to
+this an enormous quantity of wiry red hair,
+and a portentous squint, and you may form
+some conception of the goblin in question.
+He was the terror of all the children on
+board, and came regularly into the steerage
+in the morning, begging a “toothful” from
+the passengers. We never saw his tooth,
+but it must have been very large, as what
+he meant by the term was a glass of raw
+spirits, to the strength of which he was
+stoically indifferent, so that it was above
+proof. It appeared that he now thought
+that the time had come for making some sort
+of return for sundry gifts of this nature. He
+appeared amongst us, as the storm was at its
+height, and confidentially informed us that,
+unless some of the “canvas” were immediately
+taken down, the ship “had not another
+hour’s life in her.” To describe the confusion
+and dismay occasioned by this announcement
+is impossible. Nobody questioned Peter’s judgment,
+who stood looking at us as if he thought
+that one good turn deserved another. But
+every one was too much frightened to think
+of rewarding him for his kindness. Some ran
+at once upon deck to take immediate advantage
+of the boats—the women all screamed
+together—and we had a pretty tolerable taste
+of the horrors to be witnessed on the eve of
+a shipwreck. The hubbub at length ended
+in the appointment of a deputation to wait
+upon the captain, and solicit him to shorten
+sail. The deputation went upon its mission,
+but soon afterwards returned from the cabin
+to their constituents with the report that
+they had been politely requested by the
+functionary in question to mind their own
+business. The storm, however, gradually
+abated, and things and persons resumed their
+ordinary aspect.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Great was the anxiety evinced every time
+the log was thrown, to ascertain our rate of
+sailing, and at noon of each day, to know our
+daily run, and our precise locality on the
+terraqueous globe. It is difficult for an
+emigrant to reconcile himself to less than
+eight or nine knots an hour. He may put up
+with seven, or even six, provided the ship is
+in her direct course, but he regards everything
+below that as a justifiable ground of
+murmuring and complaint. Sometimes it is
+the ship that is wrong, and sometimes the
+captain, sometimes the rigging, and at other
+times, all is wrong together. But to do the
+emigrant justice, if he is in the surly mood
+when he is making but little progress, he
+makes amends for his ill-humour when the
+vessel is making a good run. We, one day,
+made but about twenty miles, and I apprehended
+a mutiny. On another we made two
+hundred, and nothing could exceed the hilarity
+and good-humour of those on board. At one
+time, the Seagull was the merest tub, a disgrace
+to her owners, and to the mercantile navy
+of the kingdom. At another, she was one of the
+best vessels afloat; the captain one of the best
+sailors on the sea; and the crew the cleverest
+set of fellows in the world. But all this time
+it was the same ship, the same captain, and
+the same crew. The diversity of opinion was
+the result of extraneous circumstances which
+caused us at different times to take different
+points of view. If the weather was favourable,
+and we made good way, the ship, captain,
+and crew, got all the honour and glory; if it
+was adverse and our progress was retarded,
+the ship, captain, and crew, had to bear all
+our sinister glances and ill humours. One
+morning, after we had been about ten days
+out, our minds were all made up that we
+were pretty near the banks of Newfoundland,
+when a fellow-passenger, evidently not very
+deeply versed in human nature, had the hardihood
+to inform us that he had, but the day
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_537'>537</span>before, seen the mate’s log book, from which
+it appeared that we were as yet but five
+hundred miles to the westward of the Irish
+coast. I can scarcely understand to this day,
+how it was that he escaped being thrown
+overboard.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>We had two men on board, the very antipodes
+of each other. The one was a colossal
+bachelor, who was never ill; the other a
+diminutive member of a large family, who
+was never well. They resembled each other
+only in one point—that they both ate prodigiously.
+The only account the bachelor could
+give of himself was that he was going out to
+Canada to saw the big trees. He had, in fact,
+been engaged as a sawyer to proceed to the
+banks of the Ottawa, there to prosecute his
+avocation in connection with some of the
+large timber establishments, which are situated
+far up that noble river. He was so
+powerful a fellow, that a Yankee passenger
+declared “he would have only to look at a tree
+to bring it down.” He lived, whilst on board,
+on nothing but oatmeal porridge, a large goblet-full
+of which, after first making it himself,
+he devoured regularly on deck four times a
+day. As to the little man, he lived, as regularly,
+on mashed potatoes, enriched with
+butter and melted cheese; and his meals were
+invariably followed by fits of sea-sickness
+which he considered quite unaccountable.
+His habits became at length such a scandal to
+all on board, that the doctor was compelled,
+by the force of public opinion, to order him
+to eat less. He had remained below from our
+time of starting, until the day we made land,
+when he appeared on deck for the first time,
+and was for the first time seen without his
+nightcap.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>When we had been about three weeks at
+sea an incident occurred which appalled us
+all, and elicited the sympathies of everyone
+for one of the unfortunate sufferers. I have
+already alluded to the old man, who was emigrating
+with his only grandson, whom he
+wished to see comfortably settled in life, ere
+his eyes were sealed in death. The youth was
+one of several on board who were fond, after
+having been a few days at sea, of climbing the
+rigging, and exposing themselves to a variety
+of unnecessary risks. He had been frequently
+warned, with the rest, against the consequences
+which might ensue, but disregarded the
+advice. One day, whilst out upon the bowsprit,
+he missed his hold and dropped into the water.
+The alarm of “man overboard” was instantly
+raised, and, to save him, the ship was immediately
+hove to; but he had disappeared, and
+although we remained for an hour upon the
+spot, we never caught a glimpse of him again.
+One of the men near him at the time said
+that, on reaching the water, he was struck on
+the head by the cut-water of the ship, which
+was then running about eight knots an hour.
+The blow stunned him, and he sank like a
+stone. The poor old man was inconsolable,
+and gradually sank into a state of vacant
+imbecility; and, on landing, found a home in
+the Lunatic Asylum at Quebec.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Let no one dream that the sea, particularly
+on board an emigrant ship, is the place for
+reading or study. It is either too cold, when
+there is the slightest breeze, or too hot when
+it is calm: it is too noisy at all times. Happy
+is he who, under such circumstances, has a
+resource against <i>ennui</i> in his own reflections.
+Having a clergyman on board, we had divine
+service regularly on the Sundays. When it
+was rough, the assemblage took place between
+decks in the steerage; but when fine we were
+convened upon deck. Sailors have a dread, not
+exactly of clergymen in the abstract, but of
+clergymen on board. A blackbird on the rigging
+as the ship is about to start, or a clergyman
+on board, is equally, in their estimation,
+a token of ill luck; and some of the crew
+pitied us for anticipating anything else, under
+the circumstances.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>If there is one thing more disagreeable than
+a storm at sea, it is a calm. It is all very
+well for a steamer, which can then make her
+way nobly over the waters; but, the annoyance
+and tedium on board a sailing vessel
+are indescribable. In all our calms we were
+surrounded by sea-gulls and other marine
+birds. Some of them ventured so close as to
+be shot; others we endeavoured to catch by
+means of baited hooks tied to a stick, which
+was attached to a long cord; but they were
+too wary for us, for, after closely examining it,
+they fought shy of the temptation.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>On nearing the banks of Newfoundland we
+were constantly immersed in fogs. One
+morning, whilst thus situated, the temperature
+of the sea suddenly lowered, which the
+captain interpreted into an indication of icebergs
+not being far off, and a sharp look out
+was ordered to be kept. It was scarcely
+noon ere we were in imminent peril of running
+at full speed against one. We owed our
+escape to a passenger, who was on the lookout,
+and who called the attention of one of
+the sailors to something ahead of us. “Starboard—starboard
+hard!”—cried he at once
+to the man at the wheel. The helm was
+scarcely turned ere we glided rapidly by the
+frozen mass, which gleamed like a huge
+emerald in the faint and struggling sunlight.
+We passed so close to it that I could have
+leaped upon it with ease. We might as well
+have run against a whinstone rock as encountered
+this floating peril, at the rate at
+which we were then gliding through the water.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Whilst crossing the banks the ship was
+frequently hove to for soundings. We took
+advantage of such occasions to fish for cod;
+nor were we unsuccessful, for we, altogether,
+hauled on board several dozen fish of a large
+size. The delight with which we feasted
+upon our prey, after some weeks’ experience
+of nothing but salt meat, I leave the reader
+to imagine. It was during one of our angling
+attempts that an incident occurred, which
+would have seemed as incredible to me as it
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_538'>538</span>may now do the reader, had I not been an
+eye-witness of it. One of the crew, whilst
+fishing for a few minutes, with a line belonging
+to a passenger, hooked a very large fish,
+which dropped into the water in the act of
+being hauled on board. The man, determined
+on securing his prize, without a moment’s
+hesitation, leaped overboard after it; and,
+seizing the half insensible fish in his arms,
+held it there until he was hauled on board,
+with his extraordinary booty. In explanation
+of this, it should be known that the gills of a
+cod-fish, when out of the water, swell considerably,
+so as to prevent it from properly performing
+their functions when restored, even
+alive, to its native element. It was whilst the
+fish in question was in the act of thus “coming
+to” that the man seized and secured it.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>On the banks, when the night was clear,
+we witnessed magnificent exhibitions of the
+aurora-borealis. It was generally between
+midnight and ten in the morning that the
+phenomenon attained the greatest splendour.
+When the whole northern sky was enveloped
+in a trellis-work of flashing wavy light, of a
+mingled golden, silvery pink, and blood-red
+hue.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>The first land we made, was Cape Breton,
+an island off the northern extremity of Nova
+Scotia; and between which and Newfoundland,
+is the entrance to the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
+The bold shore of the island was
+more picturesque than inviting; but for the
+live-long day every passenger strained his eyes
+upon this, the first positive revelation of the
+New World to him. The delight imparted by
+the first sight of land, can only be appreciated
+by those who have been for weeks at sea, with
+nothing to meet the eye, day after day, but
+the same monotonous and dreary circle of
+waters, in the midst of which the ship seems
+to rest immoveable. From Cape Breton we
+stood up the Gulf, and being favoured by
+the wind, soon made the Island of Anticosti,
+not far from the mouth of the St. Lawrence.
+It looked like a mass of petrified guano; an
+illusion which was not disturbed by the
+myriads of water-fowl which hovered about its
+precipices.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>The Gulf of St. Lawrence has not been inaptly
+designated, the “vilest of seas.” It was
+our lot to have ample experience of its capricious
+humours. When almost at the mouth
+of the river, which expands into a magnificent
+estuary of from seventy to ninety miles in
+width, we were becalmed for two whole
+days. Between us and the rocky shore on
+our left, to which we were very close, lay a
+vessel from Belfast, crowded with emigrants.
+There was music and dancing on board; and
+so near were we to each other, that we, too,
+sometimes danced to the sound of her solitary
+violin. On the evening of the second day,
+we were suddenly overtaken by a furious
+squall, which descending the river, came
+upon us so unprepared, that much of our
+canvas was cut to pieces ere it could be
+taken in. In about half an hour all was
+comparatively tranquil again, but on looking
+for our comrade, not a vestige of her was to
+be seen. It was not for three weeks afterwards,
+when we heard of her total loss, with
+upwards of three hundred and fifty souls on
+board, that our dreadful suspicions respecting
+her, were confirmed. Next morning it blew
+very fresh; and although it was the 3rd of
+June, we had several heavy falls of snow.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>After beating about for two days longer in
+the mouth of the river, we were boarded by a
+pilot, and made way for Quebec, about four
+hundred miles up. The ascent of the stream
+is sometimes exceedingly tedious; as, when
+the wind is adverse, it is necessary to come to
+anchor at every turn of the tide. Thus as
+much time is sometimes consumed in ascending
+the river, as in crossing the Atlantic. We
+were more fortunate, for we made the quarantine
+ground, thirty miles below the city, in
+ten days. Under such circumstances, the
+sail up the river is interesting and agreeable.
+For the first hundred miles or so, it is so wide,
+that land on either side is but dimly visible.
+But, as the estuary narrows, objects on either
+side become more distinct. The northern
+shore, which is bold and mountainous, is replete
+with scenes of the most romantic grandeur.
+The southern bank being much tamer in
+its character, and more adapted for human
+habitations. The channel too, some distance
+up, is occasionally studded with islands, which
+add greatly to the interest of the sail.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>The quarantine ground of Canada is Gros
+Isle, between which and Quebec stretches the
+long Island of Orleans. We had scarcely
+dropped anchor when we were boarded by
+an officer of the Board of Health. Whilst
+ascending the river, the ship had been
+thoroughly cleaned, and the berths in the
+steerage white-washed. We were all passed
+in review before the functionary in question,
+and could have been at once permitted to proceed
+to our destination, but for one old lady,
+who was not exactly ill, but ailing; on her
+account we were detained until every piece of
+clothing on board had undergone a thorough
+ablution. We landed immediately in boats,
+and, after having been for about six weeks at
+sea, it was with inexpressible joy that I sprang
+ashore, for the first time, in the New World.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Gros Isle! With what melancholy associations
+have the events of 1847 encircled the
+name of the Canadian lazaretto! On our
+arrival, in a year when the tide of emigration
+was not strong, there was a little fleet anchored
+along side of it. Some of the vessels (they
+were all from Ireland), with their overloaded
+cargoes of human beings, had been already
+there for a month, nor was there any prospect
+of their being relieved for some weeks to
+come. There was an hospital for the sick;
+the accommodation ashore for such as were
+well, consisted of several large open sheds,
+tolerably well covered and floored. In these,
+meals were taken during the day, and beds
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_539'>539</span>were made for the night. Outside, the scene
+presented was picturesque, and even gay;
+there were nearly three thousand people
+ashore, and a universal washing of clothes
+of all kinds was going on; the water being
+heated by hundreds of wood fires, which were
+blazing and smoking amongst the rocks in the
+open air. When there were families, the
+families belonging to them washed for them;
+such as were alone had to hire the services
+of professional washerwomen. The appliances
+of washing are rather peculiar. Between
+high and low water-mark the island was very
+rocky, and the action of the water had here
+and there scooped out bowls of various sizes
+from the rock. Into them, for the most part,
+the hot water was poured, and in them,
+between tides, the clothes were washed.
+They were then spread upon the rocks, or
+hung upon the trees to dry, which gave the
+island a holiday look. It was anything, however,
+but a holiday time for hundreds, who
+were forced to tenant it.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>To our great satisfaction, we were permitted,
+after but one day’s detention, to resume our
+course. With wind and tide in our favour, we
+soon dropped up to the city. It was a clear and
+brilliant morning in June when we left Gros
+Isle, and as we made our way up the narrow
+channel between the Island of Orleans and the
+southern bank of the river, nothing could
+exceed the beauty of the scene, the great
+basin, into which the city juts, being visible
+in the distance, directly ahead of us, whilst
+the precipitous bank on either side, particularly
+that on our left, was covered with the
+most luxuriant vegetation, in the shade of
+which we could, every here and there, discover
+foaming torrents, dashing headlong from
+the country above into the river, like those
+which, after heavy rains, rush with such fury
+down the western bank of Loch Ness. On
+opening one of the points of the Isle Orleans,
+the cataract of Montmorency burst suddenly
+upon our view, looking in the distance like a
+long streak of snow amid the rich green foliage
+which imbedded it. Considerably higher up,
+Point Levy still projected between us and the
+city, but long before we turned it, we could
+see over it the British flag floating in the distance
+from the lofty battlements of Cape
+Diamond. On turning the point, the change
+of scene was as sudden and complete as any
+ever effected by the scenic contrivances of the
+stage. The city was at once disclosed to view,
+skirting the fort and crowning the summit of
+the bold rocky promontory on which it stands,
+its tinned roofs and steeples gleaming in the
+sunlight, as if they were cased in silver. Very
+few vessels were at the wharves, but abreast
+of the city hundreds were anchored in the
+middle of the stream, some getting rid of their
+ballast, and others surrounded by islands of
+timber, with which they were being loaded.
+The clearness of the air, the brightness of the
+sky, the merry tumble of the water, slightly
+ruffled by a fresh easterly breeze, the singular
+position and quaint appearance of the town,
+with its massive battlements, its glistening
+turrets, and its break-neck looking streets, zigzagging
+up the precipice, with the rich greenery
+of the Heights of Abraham beyond, and
+that of Point Levy right opposite, and with
+hundreds of vessels lying quietly at anchor
+on the broad expanse of the river, whilst the
+echoes reverberated to the merry choruses of
+their busy crews,—all conspired to form a
+picture calculated to make an impression upon
+the imagination too deep to be ever effaced.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>The anchor had scarcely dropped, terminating
+our long and weary voyage, when we
+were boarded by a Custom-House officer, and
+by an officer of the Board of Health. After
+another inspection, we were permitted to land;
+and it was not without many anxious reflections
+upon the novelty of my situation, that I
+found myself retiring that night to rest within
+a stone’s throw of the monument raised to
+the joint memories of Wolf and Montcalm.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Such were the incidents of my voyage. I
+have set them down simply, and exactly as
+they occurred, for the purpose of presenting
+a true picture of the emigrant’s life afloat. I
+have since learned that, in all respects, ours
+was an average journey across the wide waste.
+Intending emigrants, therefore, who picture
+to themselves in bright colours the glories of
+a sea voyage, will, by reading these pages,
+have their dreams modified by some touches of
+reality and truth, if not entirely dispelled. If,
+however, they are adapted for success in the
+other hemisphere, they will not be daunted
+by the trials and inconveniences I have
+pictured.</p>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 class='c003'>THE SISTER’S FAREWELL.</h2>
+</div>
+
+<div class='lg-container-b c007'>
+  <div class='linegroup'>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line'>Dear Sister, sit beside my bed,</div>
+      <div class='line in2'>And let me see your gentle smile,</div>
+      <div class='line'>And let me lay my aching head</div>
+      <div class='line in2'>Upon your kindly arm awhile;</div>
+      <div class='line'>I shall not long be with you now,</div>
+      <div class='line in2'>My time is drawing to an end:</div>
+      <div class='line'>May we our spirits meekly bow,</div>
+      <div class='line in2'>And He release from suffering send.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line'>The longed-for summer’s drawing near;</div>
+      <div class='line in2'>The wind is softer, and the sun</div>
+      <div class='line'>Streams down so brightly on me here,</div>
+      <div class='line in2'>It almost seems already come.</div>
+      <div class='line'>But now—I never more shall see</div>
+      <div class='line in2'>The fields and lanes, all gay with flowers,</div>
+      <div class='line'>Nor hear the murmur of the bee,</div>
+      <div class='line in2'>Nor song of birds among the bowers.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line'>For here, no beauteous change we see</div>
+      <div class='line in2'>In nature, as the year rolls on;</div>
+      <div class='line'>No green bursts forth on bush and tree</div>
+      <div class='line in2'>When winter’s chilling frosts are gone.</div>
+      <div class='line'>No gentle flowers or odours sweet,</div>
+      <div class='line in2'>In summer cheer us as we go;</div>
+      <div class='line'>Nought see we but th’ unchanging street,</div>
+      <div class='line in2'>And weary passing to and fro.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line'>The summer, though ’tis summer still,</div>
+      <div class='line in2'>Seems not the same while we are here.</div>
+      <div class='line'>How sweet the thought of that clear rill,</div>
+      <div class='line in2'>That trembled from the hillock near</div>
+      <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_540'>540</span>To our old house! I sometimes think,</div>
+      <div class='line in2'>With my eyes closed, and half-asleep,</div>
+      <div class='line'>That I am lying on the brink</div>
+      <div class='line in2'>Of the old fish-pond, still, and deep.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line'>Methinks in one of those sweet nooks,</div>
+      <div class='line in2'>Beneath the hanging willow-trees,</div>
+      <div class='line'>I listen to the cawing rooks</div>
+      <div class='line in2'>And busy humming of the bees.</div>
+      <div class='line'>And, moodily, I watch the trout</div>
+      <div class='line in2'>Make circles in the tranquil pool;</div>
+      <div class='line'>And watch the swallows skim about,</div>
+      <div class='line in2'>And feel the breeze so fresh and cool.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line'>Let me awake—the dream was brief—</div>
+      <div class='line in2'>Be thankful for my sufferings here;</div>
+      <div class='line'>Be thankful, too, for Heaven’s relief,</div>
+      <div class='line in2'>E’en though I leave thee, sister dear.</div>
+      <div class='line'>Yet let me once more see you smile;</div>
+      <div class='line in2'>A Vision opens on me bright!</div>
+      <div class='line'>Lay your hand by me for a while—</div>
+      <div class='line in2'>And now, God bless you, love—Good Night!</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 class='c003'>THE HOME OF WOODRUFFE THE GARDENER.</h2>
+</div>
+
+<h3 class='c008'>IN EIGHT CHAPTERS.—CHAPTER IV.</h3>
+
+<p class='c009'>Fleming did what he could to find fair play
+for his father-in-law. He spoke to one and
+another—to the officers of the railway, and to
+the owners of neighbouring plots of ground,
+about the bad drainage, which was injuring
+everybody; but he could not learn that anything
+was likely to be done. The ditch—the
+great evil of all—had always been there, he
+was told, and people never used to complain
+of it. When Fleming pointed out that it
+was at first a comparatively deep ditch, and
+that it grew shallower every year, from the
+accumulations formed by its uneven bottom,
+there were some who admitted that it might
+be as well to clean it out; yet nobody set
+about it. And it was truly a more difficult
+affair now than it would have been at an
+earlier time. If the ditch was shallower, it
+was much wider. It had once been twelve
+feet wide, and it was now eighteen. When
+any drain had been flowing into it, or after a
+rainy day, the contents spread through and
+over the soil on each side, and softened it,
+and then the next time any horse or cow
+came to drink, the whole bank was made a
+perfect bog; for the poor animals, however
+thirsty, tried twenty places to find water that
+they could drink, before going away in
+despair. Such was the bar in the way of
+poor Woodruffe’s success with his ground.
+Before the end of summer, his patience was
+nearly worn out. During a showery and
+gleamy May and a pleasant June, he had
+gone on as prosperously as he could expect
+under the circumstances; and he confidently
+anticipated that a seasonable July and
+August would quite set him up. But he had
+had no previous experience of the peculiarities
+of ill-drained land; and the hot July and
+August from which he hoped so much did
+him terrible mischief. The drought which
+would have merely dried and pulverised a
+well-drained soil, leaving it free to profit
+much by small waterings, baked the overcharged
+soil of Woodruffe’s garden into hard
+hot masses of clay, amidst which his produce
+died off faster and faster every day, even
+though he and all his family wore out their
+strength with constant watering. He did
+hope, he said, that he should have been
+spared drought at least; but it seemed as if
+he was to have every plague in turn; and
+the drought seemed, at the time, to be the
+worst of all.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>One day, Fleming saw a welcome face in
+one of the carriages; Mr. Nelson, a Director
+of the railway, who was looking along the
+line to see how matters went. Though Mr.
+Nelson was not exactly the one, of all the
+Directors, whom Fleming would have chosen
+to appeal to, he saw that the opportunity
+must not be lost; and he entreated him to
+alight, and stay for the next train.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Eh! what?” said Mr. Nelson; “what
+can you want with us here? A station like
+this! Why, one has to put on spectacles
+to see it!”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“If you would come down, Sir, I should be
+glad to show you....”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Well: I suppose I must.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>As they were standing on the little platform,
+and the train was growing smaller in
+the distance, Fleming proceeded to business.
+He told of the serious complaints
+that were made for a distance of a few miles
+on either hand, of the clay pits, left by the
+railway brickmakers, to fill with stagnant
+waters.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Pho! pho! Is that what you want to
+say?” replied Mr. Nelson. “You need not
+have stopped me just to tell me that. We
+hear of those pits all along the line. We are
+sick of hearing of them.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“That does not mend the matter in this
+place,” observed Fleming. “I speak freely,
+Sir, but I think it my duty to say that something
+must be done. I heard, a few days
+ago, more than the people hereabouts know,—much
+more than I shall tell them—of the
+fever that has settled on particular points
+of our line; and I now assure you, Sir, that
+if the fever once gets a hold in this place, I
+believe it may carry us all off, before anything
+can be done. Sir, there is not one of
+us, within half a mile of the Station, that has
+a wholesome dwelling.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Pho! pho! you are a croaker,” declared
+Mr. Nelson. “Never saw such a dismal
+fellow! Why, you will die of fright, if ever
+you die of anything.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Then, Sir, will you have the goodness to
+walk round with me, and see for yourself
+what you think of things. It is not only for
+myself and my family that I speak. In an
+evil day, I induced my wife’s family to settle
+here, and....”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Ay! that is a nice garden,” observed Mr.
+Nelson, as Fleming pointed to Woodruffe’s
+land. “You are a croaker, Fleming. I declare
+I think the place is much improved
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_541'>541</span>since I saw it last. People would not come
+and settle here if the place was like what you
+say.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Instead of arguing the matter, Fleming led
+the way down the long flight of steps. He
+was aware that leading the gentleman among
+bad smells and over shoes in a foul bog
+would have more effect than any argument
+was ever known to have on his contradictious
+spirit.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“You should have seen worse things than
+these, and then you would not be so discontented,”
+observed Mr. Nelson, striking his
+stick upon the hard-baked soil, all intersected
+with cracks. “I have seen such a soil as this
+in Spain, some days after a battle, when there
+were scores of fingers and toes sticking up
+out of the cracks. What would you say to
+that?—eh?”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“We may have a chance of seeing that
+here,” replied Fleming; “if the plague comes,—and
+comes too fast for the coffin-makers,—a
+thing which has happened more than once
+in England, I believe.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Mr. Nelson stopped to laugh; but he certainly
+attended more to business as he went
+on; and Fleming, who knew something of
+his ways, had hopes that if he could only
+keep his own temper, this visit of the Director
+might not be without good results.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>In passing through Woodruffe’s garden,
+very nice management was necessary. Woodruffe
+was at work there, charged with ire
+against railway directors and landed proprietors,
+whom, amidst the pangs of his
+rheumatism, he regarded as the poisoners
+of his land and the bane of his fortunes;
+while, on the other hand, Mr. Nelson, who
+had certainly never been a market-gardener,
+criticised and ridiculed everything that met
+his eye. What was the use of such a toolhouse
+as that?—big enough for a house for
+them all. What was the use of such low
+fences?—of such high screens?—of making the
+walks so wide?—sheer waste!—of making the
+beds so long one way, and so narrow another?—of
+planting or sowing this and that?—things
+that nobody wanted. Woodruffe had pushed
+back his hat, in preparation for a defiant
+reply, when Fleming caught his eye, and, by
+a good-tempered smile, conveyed to him that
+they had an oddity to deal with. Allan, who
+had begun by listening reverently, was now
+looking from one to another, in great perplexity.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“What is that boy here for, staring like a
+dunce?  Why don’t you send him to school?
+You neglect a parent’s duty if you don’t send
+him to school.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Woodruffe answered by a smile of contempt,
+walked away, and went to work at a
+distance.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“That boy is very well taught,” Fleming
+said, quietly. “He is a great reader, and will
+soon be fit to keep his father’s accounts.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“What does he stare in that manner for,
+then? I took him for a dunce.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“He is not accustomed to hear his father
+called in question, either as a gardener or a
+parent.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Pho! pho! I might as well have waited,
+though, till he was out of hearing. Well, is
+this all you have to show me? I think you
+make a great fuss about nothing.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Will you walk this way?” said Fleming,
+turning down towards the osier beds, without
+any compassion for the gentleman’s boots or
+olfactory nerves. For a long while Mr. Nelson
+affected to admire the reeds, and water-flags,
+and marsh-blossoms, declared the decayed
+vegetation to be peat soil, very fine peat, which
+the ladies would be glad of for their heaths in
+the flower-garden,—and thought there must
+be good fowling here in winter. Fleming
+quietly turned over the so-called peat with a
+stick, letting it be seen that it was a mere
+dung-heap of decayed rushes, and wished Mr.
+Nelson would come in the fowling season, and
+see what the place was like.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“The children are merry enough, however,”
+observed the gentleman. “They can laugh
+here, much as in other places. I advise you
+to take a lesson from them, Fleming. Now,
+don’t you teach them to croak.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>The laughter sounded from the direction of
+the old brick-ground; and thither they now
+turned. Two little boys were on the brink of
+a pit, so intent on watching a rat in the
+water and on pelting it with stones, that they
+did not see that anybody was coming to
+disturb them. In answer to Mr. Nelson’s
+question, whether they were vagrants, and
+why vagrants were permitted there, Fleming
+answered that the younger one—the pale-faced
+one—was his little brother-in-law; the
+other—</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Ay, now, you will be telling me next that
+the pale face is the fault of this place.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“It certainly is,” said Fleming. “That child
+was chubby enough when he came.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Pho, pho! a puny little wretch as ever I
+saw—puny from its birth, I have no doubt of
+it. And who is the other—a gipsy?”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“He looks like it,” replied Fleming. On
+being questioned, Moss told that the boy
+lived near, and he had often played with him
+lately. Yes, he lived near, just beyond those
+trees; not in a house, only a sort of house
+the people had made for themselves. Mr.
+Nelson liked to lecture vagrants, even more
+than other people; so Moss was required to
+show the way, and his dark-skinned playfellow
+was not allowed to skulk behind.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Moss led his party on, over the tufty hay-coloured
+grass, skipping from bunch to bunch
+of rushes, round the osier beds, and at last
+straight through a clump of alders, behind
+whose screen now appeared the house, as
+Moss had called it, which the gipsies had
+made for themselves. It was the tilt of a
+waggon, serving as a tent. Nobody was
+visible but a woman, crouching under the
+shadow of the tent, to screen from the sun
+that which was lying across her lap.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_542'>542</span>“What is that that she’s nursing? Lord
+bless me! Can that be a child?” exclaimed
+Mr. Nelson.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“A child in the fever,” replied Fleming.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Lord bless me!—to see legs and arms hang
+down like that!” exclaimed the gentleman:
+and he forthwith gave the woman a lecture
+on her method of nursing—scolded her for
+letting the child get a fever—for not putting
+it to bed—for not getting a doctor to it—for
+being a gipsy, and living under an alder
+clump. He then proceeded to inquire whether
+she had anybody else in the tent, where her
+husband was, whether he lived by thieving,
+how they would all like being transported,
+whether she did not think her children would
+all be hanged, and so on. At first, the woman
+tried a facetious and wheedling tone, then a
+whimpering one, and, finally, a scolding one.
+The last answered well. Mr. Nelson found
+that a man, to say nothing of a gentleman,
+has no chance with a woman with a sore
+heart in her breast, and a sick child in her
+lap, when once he has driven her to her
+weapon of the tongue. He said afterwards,
+that he had once gone to Billingsgate, on purpose
+to set two fishwomen quarrelling, that
+he might see what it was like. The scene
+had fulfilled all his expectations; but he now
+declared that it could not compare with this
+exhibition behind the alders. He stood a long
+while, first trying to overpower the woman’s
+voice; and, when that seemed hopeless, poking
+about among the rushes with his stick, and
+finally, staring in the woman’s face, in a mood
+between consternation and amusement:—thus
+he stood, waiting till the torrent should
+intermit; but there was no sign of intermission;
+and when the sick child began to move
+and rouse itself, and look at the strangers, as
+if braced by the vigour of its mother’s tongue,
+the prospect of an end seemed further off than
+ever. Mr. Nelson shrugged his shoulders,
+signed to his companions, and walked away
+through the alders. The woman was not
+silent because they were out of sight. Her
+voice waxed shriller as it followed them, and
+died away only in the distance. Moss was
+grasping Fleming’s hand with all his might
+when Mr. Nelson spoke to him, and shook his
+stick at him, asking him how he came to play
+with such people, and saying that if ever he
+heard him learning to scold like that woman,
+he would beat him with that stick: so Moss
+vowed he never would.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“When the train was in sight by which Mr.
+Nelson was to depart, he turned to Fleming,
+with the most careless air imaginable, saying,</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Have you any medicine in your house?—any
+bark?”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Not any. But I will send for some.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Ay, do. Or,—no—I will send you some.
+See if you can’t get these people housed somewhere,
+so that they may not sleep in the
+swamp. I don’t mean in any of your houses,
+but in a barn, or some such place. If the
+physic comes before the doctor, get somebody
+to dose the child. And don’t fancy you are
+all going to die of the fever. That is the way
+to make yourselves ill: and it is all nonsense,
+too, I dare say.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Do you like that gentleman?” asked Moss,
+sapiently, when the train was whirling Mr.
+Nelson out of sight. “Because I don’t—not
+at all.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“I believe he is kinder than he seems, Moss.
+He need not be so rough: but I know he
+does kind things sometimes.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“But, do you like him?”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“No, I can’t say I do.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Before many hours were over, Fleming was
+sorry that he had admitted this, even to himself;
+and for many days after he was occasionally
+heard telling Moss what a good
+gentleman Mr. Nelson was, for all his roughness
+of manners. With the utmost speed,
+before it would have been thought possible,
+arrived a surgeon from the next town, with
+medicines, and the news that he was to come
+every day while there was any fear of fever.
+The gipsies were to have been cared for; but
+they were gone. The marks of their fire and
+a few stray feathers which showed that a
+fowl had been plucked, alone told where they
+had encamped. A neighbour, who loved her
+poultry yard, was heard to say that the sick
+child would not die for want of chicken broth,
+she would be bound; and the nearest farmer
+asked if they had left any potato-peels and
+turnip tops for his pig. He thought that was
+the least they could do after making their
+famous gipsy stew (a capital dish, it was said,)
+from his vegetables. They were gone; and if
+they had not left fever behind, they might be
+forgiven, for the sake of the benefit of taking
+themselves off. After the search for the
+gipsies was over, there was still an unusual
+stir about the place. One and another
+stranger appeared and examined the low
+grounds, and sent for one and another of the
+neighbouring proprietors, whether farmer, or
+builder, or gardener, or labourer; for every
+one who owned or rented a yard of land on
+the borders of the great ditch, or anywhere
+near the clay pits or osier beds. It was the
+opinion of the few residents near the Station
+that something would be done to improve the
+place before another year; and everybody
+said that it must be Mr. Nelson’s doings, and
+that it was a thousand pities that he did not
+come earlier, before the fever had crept thus
+far along the line.</p>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 class='c003'>CHAPTER THE FIFTH.</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c004'>For some months past, Becky had believed
+without a doubt, that the day of her return
+home would be the very happiest day of her
+life. She was too young to know yet that it
+is not for us to settle which of our days shall
+be happy ones, nor what events shall yield us
+joy. The promise had not been kept that she
+should return when her father and mother
+removed into the new cottage. She had been
+told that there really was not, even now
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_543'>543</span>decent room for them all; and that they
+must at least wait till the hot weather was
+completely over before they crowded the
+chamber, as they had hitherto done. And
+then, when autumn came on, and the creeping
+mists from the low grounds hung round the
+place from sunset till after breakfast the next
+day, the mother delayed sending for her
+daughter, unwilling that she should lose the
+look of health which she alone now, of all the
+family, exhibited. Fleming and his wife and
+babe prospered better than the others. The
+young man’s business lay on the high ground,
+at the top of the embankment. He was
+there all day while Mr. Woodruffe and Allan
+were below, among the ditches and the late
+and early fogs. Mrs. Fleming was young and
+strong, full of spirit and happiness; and so
+far fortified against the attacks of disease, as
+a merry heart strengthens nerve and bone and
+muscle, and invigorates all the vital powers.
+In regard to her family, her father’s hopeful
+spirit seemed to have passed into her. While
+he was becoming permanently discouraged,
+she was always assured that everything would
+come right next year. The time had arrived
+for her power of hope to be tested to the
+utmost. One day this autumn, she admitted
+that Becky must be sent for. She did not
+forget, however, to charge Allan to be cheerful,
+and make the best of things, and not
+frighten Becky by the way.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>It was now the end of October. Some of
+the days were balmy elsewhere—the afternoons
+ruddy; the leaves crisp beneath the
+tread; the squirrel busy after the nuts in the
+wood; the pheasants splendid among the dry
+ferns in the brake, the sportsman warm and
+thirsty in his exploring among the stubble.
+In the evenings the dwellers in country
+houses called one another out upon the grass,
+to see how bright the stars were, and how
+softly the moonlight slept upon the woods.
+While it was thus in one place, in another,
+and not far off, all was dank, dim, dreary and
+unwholesome; with but little sun, and no
+moon or stars; all chill, and no glow; no
+stray perfumes, the last of the year, but
+sickly scents coming on the steam from
+below. Thus it was about Fleming’s house,
+this latter end of October, when he saw but
+little of his wife, because she was nursing her
+mother in the fever, and when he tried to
+amuse himself with his young baby at mealtimes
+(awkward nurse as he was) to relieve
+his wife of the charge for the little time he
+could be at home. When the baby cried, and
+when he saw his Abby look wearied, he did
+wish, now and then, that Becky was at home:
+but he was patient, and helpful, and as cheerful
+as he could, till the day which settled the
+matter. On that morning he felt strangely
+weak, barely able to mount the steps to the
+station. During the morning, several people
+told him he looked ill; and one person did
+more. The porter sent a message to the next
+large Station that somebody must be sent
+immediately to fill Fleming’s place, in case of
+his being too ill to work. Somebody came;
+and before that, Fleming was in bed—certainly
+down in the fever. His wife was now
+wanted at home; and Becky must come to
+her mother.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Though Becky asked questions all the way
+home, and Allan answered them as truthfully
+as he knew how, she was not prepared for
+what she found—her father aged and bent,
+always in pain, more or less, and far less
+furnished with plans and hopes than she had
+ever known him; Moss, fretful and sickly,
+and her mother unable to turn herself in her
+bed. Nobody mentioned death. The surgeon
+who came daily, and told Becky exactly what
+to do, said nothing of anybody dying of the
+fever, while Woodruffe was continually talking
+of things that were to be done when his wife
+got well again. It was sad, and sometimes
+alarming, to hear the strange things that
+Mrs. Woodruffe said in the evenings when she
+was delirious; but if Abby stepped in at such
+times, she did not think much of it, did not
+look upon it as any sign of danger; and was
+only thankful that her husband had no delirium.
+His head was always clear, she said,
+though he was very weak. Becky never
+doubted, after this, that her mother was the
+most severely ill of the two; and she was
+thunderstruck when she heard one morning
+the surgeon’s answers to her father’s questions
+about Fleming. He certainly considered
+it a bad case; he would not say that he could
+not get through; but he must say it was
+contrary to his expectation. When Becky
+saw her father’s face as he turned away and
+went out, she believed his heart was broken.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“But I thought,” said she to the surgeon,
+“I thought my mother was most ill of the two.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“I don’t know that,” was the reply, “but she
+is very ill. We are doing the best we can.—You
+are, I am sure,” he said, kindly; “and we
+must hope on, and do our best till a change
+comes. The wisest of us do not know what
+changes may come. But I could not keep
+your father in ignorance of what may happen
+in the other house.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>No appearances alarmed Abby. Because
+there was no delirium, she apprehended no
+danger. Even when the fatal twitchings came,
+the arm twitching as it lay upon the coverlid,
+she did not know it was a symptom of anything.
+As she nursed her husband perfectly
+well, and could not have been made more
+prudent and watchful by any warning, she
+had no warning. Her cheerfulness was encouraged,
+for her infant’s sake, as well as for
+her husband’s and her own. Some thought
+that her husband knew his own case. A word
+or two,—now a gesture, and now a look,—persuaded
+the surgeon and Woodruffe that he
+was aware that he was going. His small
+affairs were always kept settled; he had probably
+no directions to give; and his tenderness
+for his wife showed itself in his enjoying her
+cheerfulness to the last. When, as soon as it
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_544'>544</span>was light, one December morning, Moss was
+sent to ask if Abby could possibly come for a
+few minutes, because mother was worse, he
+found his sister alone, looking at the floor,
+her hands on her lap, though the baby was
+fidgetting in its cradle. Fleming’s face was
+covered, and he lay so still that Moss, who
+had never seen death, felt sure that all was
+over. The boy hardly knew what to do; and
+his sister seemed not to hear what he said.
+The thought of his mother,—that Abby’s
+going might help or save her,—moved him to
+act. He kissed Abby, and said she must
+please go to mother; and he took the baby
+out of the cradle, and wrapped it up, and put
+it into its mother’s arms; and fetched Abby’s
+bonnet, and took her cloak down from its peg,
+and opened the door for her, saying, that he
+would stay and take care of everything. His
+sister went without a word; and, as soon as
+he had closed the door behind her, Moss sank
+down on his knees before the chair where she
+had been sitting, and hid his face there till
+some one came for him,—to see his mother
+once more before she died.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>As the two coffins were carried out, to be
+conveyed to the churchyard together, Mr.
+Nelson, who had often been backward and
+forward during the last six weeks, observed
+to the surgeon that the death of such a man
+as Fleming was a dreadful loss.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“It is that sort of men that the fever cuts
+off,” said the surgeon. “The strong man, in
+the prime of life, at his best period, one may
+say, for himself and for society, is taken away,—leaving
+wife and child helpless and forlorn.
+That is the ravage that the fever makes.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Well: would not people tell you that it is
+our duty to submit?” asked Mr. Nelson, who
+could not help showing some emotion by voice
+and countenance.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Submit!” said the surgeon. “That depends
+on what the people mean who use the
+word. If you or I were ill of the fever, we
+must resign ourselves, as cheerfully as we
+could. But if you ask me whether we should
+submit to see more of our neighbours cut off
+by fever as these have been, I can only ask
+in return, whose doing it is that they are
+living in a swamp, and whether that is to go
+on? Who dug the clay pits? Who let that
+ditch run abroad, and make a filthy bog? Are
+you going to charge that upon Providence,
+and talk of submitting to the consequences?
+If so, that is not my religion.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“No, no. There is no religion in that,”
+replied Mr. Nelson, for once agreeing in what
+was said to him. “It must be looked to.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“It must,” said the surgeon, as decidedly as
+if he had been a railway director, or king and
+parliament in one.</p>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 class='c003'>CHAPTER THE SIXTH.</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c004'>“I wonder whether there is a more forlorn
+family in England than we are now,” said
+Woodruffe, as he sat among his children, a
+few hours after the funeral.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>His children were glad to hear him speak,
+however gloomy might be his tone. His
+silence had been so terrible that nothing that
+he could say could so weigh upon their hearts.
+His words, however, brought out his widowed
+daughter’s tears again. She was sewing—her
+infant lying in her lap. As her tears fell
+upon its face, it moved and cried. Becky
+came and took it up, and spoke cheerfully to
+it. The cheerfulness seemed to be the worst
+of all. Poor Abby laid her forehead to the
+back of her chair, and sobbed as if her heart
+would break.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Ay, Abby,” said her father, “your heart is
+breaking, and mine too. You and I can go to
+our rest, like those that have gone before us:
+but I have to think what will become of these
+young things.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Yes, father,” said Becky gently, but with a
+tone of remonstrance, “you must endeavour to
+live, and not make up your mind to dying,
+because life has grown heavy and sad.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“My dear, I am ill—very ill. It is not
+merely that life is grown intolerable to me.
+I am sure I could not live long in such misery
+of mind: but I am breaking up fast.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>The young people looked at each other in
+dismay. There was something worse than
+the grief conveyed by their father’s words in
+the hopeless daring—the despair—of his tone
+when he ventured to say that life was unendurable.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Becky had the child on one arm; with the
+other hand she took down her father’s plaid
+from its peg, and put it round his rheumatic
+shoulders, whispering in his ear a few words
+about desiring that God’s will should be
+done.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“My dear,” he replied, “it was I who taught
+you that lesson when you were a child on my
+knee, and it would be strange if I forgot it
+when I want so much any comfort that I can
+get. But I don’t believe (and if you ask the
+clergyman, he will tell you that he does not
+believe), that it is God’s will that we, or any
+other people, should be thrust into a swamp
+like this, scarcely fit for the rats and the frogs
+to live in. It is man’s doing, not God’s, that
+the fever makes such havoc as it has made
+with us. The fever does not lay waste healthy
+places.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Then why are we here?” Allan ventured
+to say. “Father, let us go.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Go! I wonder how or where! I can’t go,
+or let any of you go. I have not a pound in
+the world to spend in moving, or in finding
+new employment. And if I had, who would
+employ me? Who would not laugh at a
+crippled old man asking for work and
+wages?”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Then, father, we must see what we can do
+here, and you must not forbid us to say
+‘God’s will be done!’ If we cannot go
+away, it must be His will that we should stay,
+and have as much hope and courage as we
+can.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Woodruffe threw himself back in his chair.
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_545'>545</span>It was too much to expect that he would
+immediately rally; but he let the young
+people confer, and plan, and cheer each
+other.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>The first thing to be done, they agreed, was
+to move hither, whenever the dismal rain
+would permit it, all Abby’s furniture that
+could not be disposed of to her husband’s
+successors. It would fit up the lower room.
+And Allan and Becky settled how the things
+could stand so as to make it at once a bedroom
+and sitting-room. If, as Abby had said,
+she meant to try to get some scholars, and
+keep a little school, room must be left to seat
+the children.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Keep a school?” exclaimed Woodruffe,
+looking round at Abby.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Yes, father,” said Abby, raising her head.
+“That seems to be a thing that I can do: and
+it will be good for me to have something to
+do. Becky is the stoutest of us all, and....”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“I wonder how long that will last,” groaned
+the father.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“I am quite stout now,” said Becky; “and
+I am the one to help Allan with the garden.
+Allan and I will work under your direction,
+father, while your rheumatism lasts; and....”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“And what am I to do?” asked Moss,
+pushing himself in.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“You shall fetch and carry the tools,” said
+Becky; “that is, when the weather is fine,
+and when your chilblains are not very bad.
+And you shall be bird-boy when the sowing
+season comes on.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“And we are going to put up a pent-house
+for you, in one corner, you know, Moss,” said
+his brother. “And we will make it so that
+there shall be room for a fire in it, where
+father and you may warm yourselves, and
+always have dry shoes ready.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“I wonder what our shoe leather will have
+cost us by the time the spring comes,” observed
+Woodruffe. “There is not a place where
+we ever have to take the cart or the barrow
+that is not all mire and ruts: not a path in
+the whole garden that I call a decent one.
+Our shoes are all pulled to pieces; while the
+frost, or the fog, or something or other, prevents
+our getting any real work done. The
+waste is dreadful. Nothing should have
+made me take a garden where none but
+summer crops are to be had, if I could have
+foreseen such a thing. I never saw such a
+thing before,—never—as market-gardening
+without winter and spring crops. Never
+heard of such a thing!”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Becky glanced towards Allan, to see if he
+had nothing to propose. If they could neither
+mend the place nor leave it, it did seem a
+hard case. Allan was looking into the fire,
+musing. When Moss announced that the
+rain was over, Allan started, and said he
+must be fetching some of Abby’s things
+down, if it was fair. Becky really meant
+to help him: but she also wanted opportunity
+for consultation, as to whether it could really
+be God’s will that they should neither be able
+to mend their condition nor to escape from it.
+As they mounted the long flight of steps,
+they saw Mr. Nelson issue from the Station,
+looking about him to ascertain if the rain was
+over, and take his stand on the embankment,
+followed by a gentleman who had a roll of
+paper in his hand. As they stood, the one
+was seen to point with his stick, and the
+other with his roll of paper, this way and
+that. Allan set off in that direction, saying
+to his sister, as he went,</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Don’t you come. That gentleman is so
+rude, he will make you cry. Yes, I must go;
+and I won’t get angry; I won’t indeed. He
+may find as much fault as he pleases; I must
+show him how the water is standing in our
+furrows.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Hallo! what do you want here?” was Mr.
+Nelson’s greeting, when, after a minute or
+two, he saw Allan looking and listening.
+“What business have you here, hearkening
+to what we are saying?”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“I wanted to know whether anything is
+going to be done below there. I thought, if
+you wished it, I could tell you something
+about it.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“You! what, a dainty little fellow like you?—a
+fellow that wears his Sunday clothes on a
+Tuesday, and a rainy Tuesday too! You
+must get working clothes and work.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“I shall work to-morrow, Sir. My mother
+and my brother-in-law were buried to-day.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Lord bless me! You should have told
+me that. How should I know that unless
+you told me?” He proceeded in a much
+gentler tone, however, merely remonstrating
+with Allan for letting the wet stand in the
+furrows, in such a way as would spoil any
+garden. Allan had a good ally, all the while,
+in the stranger, who seemed to understand
+everything before it was explained. The
+gentleman was, in fact, an agricultural surveyor—one
+who could tell, when looking
+abroad from a height, what was swamp and
+what meadow; where there was a clean
+drain, and where an uneven ditch; where
+the soil was likely to be watered, and where
+flooded by the winter rains; where genially
+warmed, and where fatally baked by the
+summer’s sun. He had seen, before Allan
+pointed it out, how the great ditch cut across
+between the cultivated grounds and the little
+river into which those grounds should be
+drained: but he could not know, till told by
+Allan, who were the proprietors and occupiers
+of the parcels of land lying on either side the
+ditch. Mr. Nelson knew little or nothing
+under this head, though he contradicted the
+lad every minute; was sure such an one did
+not live here, nor another there: told him he
+was confusing Mr. Smith and Mr. Brown: did
+not believe a word of Mr. Taylor having
+bought yonder meadow, or Mrs. Scott now
+renting that field. All the while, the surveyor
+went on setting down the names as Allan told
+them; and then observed that they were not
+so many but that they might combine, if they
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_546'>546</span>would, to drain their properties, if they could
+be relieved of the obstruction of the ditch—if
+the surveyor of highways would see that the
+ditch were taken in hand. Mr. Nelson pronounced
+that there should be no difficulty
+about the ditch, if the rest could be managed:
+and then, after a few whispered words between
+the gentlemen, Allan was asked first, whether
+he was sure that he knew where every
+person lived whose name was down in the
+surveyor’s book; and next, whether he would
+act as guide to-morrow. For a moment he
+thought he should be wanted to move Abby’s
+things: but, remembering the vast importance
+of the plan which seemed now to be
+fairly growing under his eye, he replied that
+he would go: he should be happy to make it
+his day’s work to help, ever so little, towards
+what he wished above everything in the
+world.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“What makes you in such a hurry to suppose
+we want to get a day’s work out of you
+for nothing?” asked Mr. Nelson. He thrust
+half-a-crown into the lad’s waistcoat pocket,
+saying that he must give it back again, if he
+led the gentleman wrong. The gentleman
+had no time to go running about the country
+on a fool’s errand; Allan must mind that.
+As Allan touched his hat, and ran down the
+steps, Mr. Nelson observed that boys with
+good hearts did not fly about in that way, as
+if they were merry, on the day of their
+mother’s funeral.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Perhaps he is rather thinking of saving
+his father,” observed the surveyor.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>“Well; save as many of them as you can.
+They seem all going to pot as it is.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>When Allan burst in, carrying nothing of
+Abby’s, but having a little colour in his
+cheeks for once, his father sat up in his chair,
+the baby suddenly stopped crying, and Moss
+asked where he had been. At first, his father
+disappointed him by being listless—first refusing
+to believe anything good, and then
+saying that any good that could happen now
+was too late; and Abby could not help crying
+all the more because this was not thought
+about a year sooner. It was her poor
+husband that had made the stir; and now
+they were going to take his advice the very
+day that he was laid in his grave. They all
+tried to comfort her, and said how natural it
+was that she should feel it so; yet, amidst all
+their sympathy, they could not help being
+cheered that something was to be done at
+last.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>By degrees, and not slow degrees, Woodruffe
+became animated. It was surprising
+how many things he desired Allan to be sure
+not to forget to point out to the surveyor, and
+to urge upon those he was to visit. At last
+he said he would go himself. It was a very
+serious business, and he ought to make an
+effort to have it done properly. It was a
+great effort, but he would make it. Not
+rheumatism, nor anything else, should keep
+him at home. Allan was glad at heart to see
+such signs of energy in his father, though he
+might feel some natural disappointment at
+being left at home, and some perplexity as to
+what, in that case, he ought to do about the
+half-crown, if Mr. Nelson should be gone
+home. The morning settled this, however.
+The surveyor was in his gig. If Allan could
+hang on, or keep up with it, it would be very
+well, as he would be wanted to open the
+gates, and to lead the way in places too wet
+for his father, who was not worth such a pair
+of patent waterproof tall boots as the surveyor
+had on.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>The circuit was not a very wide one; yet
+it was dark before they got home. There are
+always difficulties in arrangements which
+require combined action. Here there were
+different levels in the land, and different
+tempers and views among the occupiers. Mr.
+Brown had heard nothing about the matter,
+and could not be hurried till he saw occasion.
+Mr. Taylor liked his field best, wet—would
+not have it drier on any account, for fear of
+the summer sun. When assured that drought
+took no hold on well-dried land in comparison
+with wet land, he shook with laughter, and
+asked if they expected him to believe that.
+Mrs. Scott, whose combination with two
+others was essential to the drainage of three
+portions, would wait another year. They
+must go on without her; and after another
+year, she would see what she would do.
+Another had drained his land in his own way
+long ago, and did not expect that anybody
+would ask him to put his spade into another
+man’s land, or to let any other man put his
+spade into his. These were all the obstructions.
+Everybody else was willing, or at
+least, not obstructive. By clever management,
+it was thought that the parties concerned
+could make an island of Mrs. Scott and her
+field, and win over Mr. Brown by the time he
+was wanted, and show Mr. Taylor that, as his
+field could no longer be as wet as it had been,
+he might as well try the opposite condition—they
+promising to flood his field as often and
+as thoroughly as he pleased, if he found it the
+worse for being drained. They could not
+obtain all they wished, where every body was
+not as wise as could be wished; but so much
+was agreed upon as made the experienced surveyor
+think that the rest would follow;
+enough, already, to set more labourers to
+work than the place could furnish. Two or
+three stout men were sent from a distance;
+and when they had once cut a clear descent
+from the ditch to the river, and had sunk the
+ditch to seven feet deep, and made the bottom
+even, and narrowed it to three feet, it was a
+curious thing to see how ready the neighbours
+became to unite their drains with it. It used
+to be said, that here—however it might be
+elsewhere—the winter was no time for digging:
+but that must have meant that no
+winter-digging would bring a spring crop;
+and that therefore it was useless. Now, the
+sound of the spade never ceased for the rest
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_547'>547</span>of the winter; and the labourers thought it
+the best winter they had ever known for
+constant work. Those who employed the
+labour hoped it would answer—found it expensive—must
+trust it was all right, and
+would yield a profit by and by. As for the
+Woodruffes, they were too poor to employ
+labourers. But some little hope had entered
+their hearts again, and brought strength, not
+only to their hearts, but to their very limbs.
+They worked like people beginning the world.
+As poor Abby could keep the house and
+sew, while attending to her little school,
+Becky did the lighter parts (and some which
+were far from light) of the garden work,
+finding easy tasks for Moss; and Allan
+worked like a man at the drains. They had
+been called good drains before; but now,
+there was an outfall for deeper ones; and
+deeper they must be made. Moreover, a
+strong rivalry arose among the neighbours
+about their respective portions of the combined
+drainage; and under the stimulus of
+ambition, Woodruffe recovered his spirits and
+the use of his limbs wonderfully. He suffered
+cruelly from his rheumatism; and in the
+evenings felt as if he could never more lift a
+spade; yet, not the less was he at work again
+in the morning, and so sanguine as to the
+improvement of his ground, that it was
+necessary to remind him, when calculating
+his gains, that it would take two years, at
+least, to prove the effects of his present
+labours.</p>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 class='c003'>LINES TO A DEAD LINNET.</h2>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c001'>
+    <div>BY A SOLITARY STUDENT.</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<div class='lg-container-b c007'>
+  <div class='linegroup'>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line'>Sweet little friend in hours of lonely thought,</div>
+      <div class='line'>And studious toil thro’ the unresting day,</div>
+      <div class='line'>Why hast thou left me to the sullen hours,</div>
+      <div class='line'>So dull and changeless now? Thy light-heart song,</div>
+      <div class='line'>And fluttering plume of joy, beguile no more</div>
+      <div class='line'>My weary mind, happy when so estranged,</div>
+      <div class='line'>From books, which are the bane of all repose.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line in2'>The secret bustle of thy frequent meal,</div>
+      <div class='line'>Like elfin working mischief, all unseen</div>
+      <div class='line'>At bottom of thy cage; thy dipping bill,</div>
+      <div class='line'>Oft splashing sportive o’er the learned tome,</div>
+      <div class='line'>And rousing my ’rapt soul to homelier themes;</div>
+      <div class='line'>The tuning twitter, snatch’d and interrupt—</div>
+      <div class='line'>The timorous essay, low and querulous—</div>
+      <div class='line'>The strain symphonious—and the full burst of song,</div>
+      <div class='line'>That made my study-walls re-echo sweet,</div>
+      <div class='line'>The harmonious peal, while all its tatter’d maps</div>
+      <div class='line'>And prints unframed, responsive tremblings gave;—</div>
+      <div class='line'>All these are past, and joy takes wing with thee.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line in2'>Nor less, when in the dreary night, far spent,</div>
+      <div class='line'>Still was I pondering o’er the murky page,</div>
+      <div class='line'>Hast thou attracted notice by thy bill</div>
+      <div class='line'>Battling along the wires; and in the twinkle—</div>
+      <div class='line'>The clos’d—and then, bright little eye, half-oped.</div>
+      <div class='line'>Well have I read thy meaning, and full soon,</div>
+      <div class='line'>Thus warned of needful slumber, borne away</div>
+      <div class='line'>The wasted lamp, and sought my lonely couch.</div>
+    </div>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line in2'>Thy empty cage now hangs against the wall!</div>
+      <div class='line'>No one inhabits it—nothing is there—</div>
+      <div class='line'>Thy seed-box is half full of dust and film;</div>
+      <div class='line'>A spider weaves within thy water-glass:</div>
+      <div class='line'>The wretchedness of silence—no response</div>
+      <div class='line'>To calls and questionings of the heart—the mind—</div>
+      <div class='line'>All show me thou art dead—for ever gone!</div>
+      <div class='line'>I stand and gaze on thy perplexing cage—</div>
+      <div class='line'>Like a friend’s house—deserted!—one we have loved—</div>
+      <div class='line'>And before which, returning after years,</div>
+      <div class='line'>We pause, and think of hours enjoyed within;</div>
+      <div class='line'>And gaze upon the dusty shutters—closed!</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 class='c003'>THE GOOD GOVERNOR.</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c004'>In a region where favourable latitude and
+tempering sea-breezes combine to produce
+perpetual summer, lie “the still vexed Bermoothes,”
+the Bermuda of modern navigators,
+where one-half of the year is the fitting seedtime
+for plants of the tropical, and the other
+half of the temperate zones. These islands,
+discovered to us by a shipwreck, with one
+exception, our oldest colony, offer a miniature
+copy of the institutions of the parent state.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>About twenty square miles of surface, consisting
+of one island thirty miles long by two
+broad, and a half-dozen <i>aide-de-camp</i> sort of
+islets, support a population rather less numerous,
+and considerably less wealthy, than
+that of the City of Canterbury; and enjoy
+the dignity of a capital, with two thousand
+inhabitants; of a Governor and Commander-in-Chief,
+who takes his seat on “the throne”
+when opening the Bermoothean Parliament;
+of a Council, or miniature House of Lords,
+and a Representative Assembly of thirty-six
+members, forming a miniature House of
+Commons. They had formerly an Archdeacon,
+but, by one of those extraordinary
+decisions that occasionally originate in high
+quarters, the Archdeacon has been metamorphosed
+into a Bishop of Newfoundland, whom
+the Bermudians never see, although they still
+have the honour of paying the salary of
+the late Archdeacon.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Formerly Bermuda, like Virginia, from
+which it was an offshoot, was a slave colony,
+and grew tobacco. But tobacco would not
+pay, and every Bermudian, being born within
+a mile of the water, was bred amphibious.
+Capital cedar for ship-building grows on the
+hills, and harbours are all around to receive
+the craft when built. So it came to pass, that
+the “‘Mudian” clippers became plentiful all
+over the neighbouring seas, and took a large
+share of the carrying trade between our
+American colonies and the West Indies.
+Even when a large slice of these said colonies
+had struggled into the Republic of the United
+States, the ’Mudians continued to do a good
+stroke of sea-faring business.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Then whales abounded in the neighbouring
+seas, and every ’Mudian took to handling the
+oar, the lance, or the harpoon, at a time of
+life when other children were driving hoops,
+or riding rocking-horses.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_548'>548</span>It was the natural result of these handy
+occupations in so limited a space, that the
+whole population, with the exception of that
+supported by the expenditure of the garrison,
+was occupied in building, or rigging, or manning,
+or loading, vessels of some kind, if not
+whaling or fishing. White or black, they
+were all sailors and sea-faring to a man, almost
+to a woman. The real mermaid still lingers
+round Bermuda’s coast. Breechless babies
+swaggered along with a mixture of long and
+short steps in true jack-tar style. Bermudian
+young ladies directed their maids to let out
+a reef in a petticoat, and officers driving
+tandem were bid “put yer helm down,” by
+native guides.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>There are no records to show when first in
+Bermuda sea-faring arts began to devour all
+others; certain it is that just as the manufacture
+of glass and porcelain, purple dye,
+and other signal utilities and ornaments have
+been more than once discovered, lost, and
+re-discovered, so were agriculture and horticulture
+in the year 1839 of the islands of
+perpetual spring, among the lost arts. If in
+that year some convulsion had for ever
+separated them from external communications,
+the process of food-growing among a British
+race would have been left as rude in theory,
+more imperfect in practice, than among the
+New Zealanders or South Sea Islanders.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>There were in that year two persons in the
+islands who could plough, but they did not.
+Haymaking and mowing was a theory learned
+in books, just as curious inquirers in Lancashire
+may have read of cotton cultivation. As
+for the state of gardening, it was about parallel
+with British gardening in the time of Queen
+Bess, who used to send to Holland for a
+salad.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>So there was neither corn nor hay, and very
+little fruit, of the worst quality. A sort of
+bitter orange-tree abounded through the
+islands. Inquisitive strangers asked “Why
+not graft or bud sweet oranges on these luxuriant
+stocks, or why not sow sweet seeds?”
+But the natives were positive that buds would
+not take, and seeds would not grow.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Such was Bermuda in 1839; somewhat
+depressed in its fishing, whaling, ship-building,
+sea-carrying commerce, by the competition
+of New Brunswick and the United
+States. Although less affected than the
+sugar-growing islands by negro emancipation,
+still whites, who had lived easily although
+barely by hiring out a few black artisans,
+were reduced to sore straits.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>It was in this year there arrived a new
+Governor. He travelled the length and
+breadth of his islands, and found all green
+and all barren; a light, but fertile soil,
+bearing fine timber, and luxuriant weeds.
+Round the government house was a waste
+of eight acres, within sight a great swamp.
+According to popular opinion, Colonial Governors
+are gentlemen of broken fortunes,
+and strong political connections, who endure
+temporary evils for the sake of future ease
+and dignity.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>At any rate, among military martinet
+Governors; naval bashaw Governors; didactic
+despatch-writing Governors; Governors
+landing with crotchets all ready-cut and dry;
+Governors who support the Royal Prerogative
+by quarrelling with all their subjects,
+and Governors whose whole soul is in
+quiet and domestic economy, the popular
+Governor, the wise, conciliating Governor, is
+indeed a rare bird. According to stereotyped
+precedent, our Bermoothean Governor ought
+to have first sat down and written a flaming despatch
+home, painting the misery of the island,
+detailing his plans, and asking for money.
+Next he should have filled up a scheme on a
+scale large enough to satisfy the ideas of a
+Paxton in horticulture, or a Smith of Deanston
+in agriculture, and applied to his little parliament
+for a vote, in order to make a garden
+for himself, and a model farm for his own
+amusement and the benefit of the islanders.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>But it happened that our “good” Governor
+as he was afterwards called with good reason,
+was not a stereotyped Governor, so that the
+people he was sent to rule became happy and
+prosperous. He cared not to become either
+rich or famous. Therefore, all his proceedings
+were on a humble, commonplace scale. Seeing
+that the climate was admirably adapted
+for oranges; which, if of good quality, would
+afford a valuable export, he sent for slips and
+seeds of the best kinds.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>In front of Government House stands a
+bitter citron-tree: on this, with his own hands,
+he budded a sweet orange. The bud, contrary
+to all Bermudian opinions, sprouted, and grew,
+and flourished. After the living example of
+the Governor’s tree, it became a fashion—a
+rage—to bud sweet oranges; so by this simple
+and short cut an horticultural revolution was
+effected. Still working out the maxim that
+example is better than precept, our good
+Governor beat up for gardener recruits, accepting
+those who knew a little as well as
+those who knew nothing, but were willing to
+learn. With their aid, and at his own expense,
+the eight acres of waste round his residence,
+Mount Langton, were converted into
+a pleasure-ground, adorned with plants and
+shrubs of the tropical and temperate zones,
+which he threw open freely to the inhabitants
+without distinction of colour.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>The next step was to drain the great marsh,
+the Langton Marsh, and grow hay upon it, so
+as to give the Bermudians a hint on the oddness
+of importing hay, while fine grass land
+lay waste. Two men who could plough were
+discovered, and pupils put under their hands;
+at the same time ploughs were imported.
+Having, out of his own pocket, offered prizes
+for garden flowers and vegetables, for corn
+and hay, for the best ploughman, and the best
+scytheman, the performances of these two
+being as wonderful to the islanders as skating
+to an Indian prince, or wine-making to a Yorkshireman,
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_549'>549</span>the Local Parliament willingly voted
+other prizes for the same purpose.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>It would take up too much time to detail
+all the good Governor’s efforts—by example,
+by instruction, by rewards, by distribution of
+books, and by the promotion of industrial
+schools, to educate the rising generation of
+Bermuda in useful, civilising arts.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>A grand holiday, held in May, 1846, showed
+that these efforts had not been without pleasant
+and practical results.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Mount Langton and all the pleasure-grounds
+created under the personal inspection and at
+the expense of the good Governor, were
+crowded with a noisy happy population, of all
+ranks, all ages, and all colours, black, white,
+and brown, assembled to enjoy and celebrate
+the taking stock of the revived Industry of the
+islands. Not equal in variety to the great
+Parisian Exposition, or in quality to the
+Royal Agricultural Shows, it was still an era
+in the history of the colony.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>The Queen’s representative did not grudge
+to give up for the occasion his private domain,
+as that was the best site in the Island. Amid
+the luxuriant shrubs and gorgeous tropical
+flowers, the gay groups wandered; sweetly
+the sounds of the regimental band intermingled
+with the shouts and whip-crackings
+of the contending ploughmen as they turned
+up the brown furrows of long neglected soil,
+and with the switching of twenty-five scythe-men
+exhibiting their newly acquired skill on
+the drained pasture of Langton Marsh. Below
+lay the shipping in harbour, and far beyond
+the golden purple ocean was dotted over with
+the cloud-like canvas of the famous ’Mudian
+craft. Almost at once—one glance—it was
+possible to take in a view of the pursuits of
+old and young Bermuda. Government House
+was closed;—to have entertained the thousands
+who had assembled (beyond the needful
+supply of cold water found in huge jars and
+tubs in every shady place, a provision so
+grateful under a tropical sun,) was impossible;
+to have entertained a part—an exclusive few—on
+such an occasion, would have been contrary
+to the Governor’s principles; so for
+that day all personal attendants were enabled
+to share in the universal holiday.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>In due time after the ploughing and mowing
+matches, came the competition in turnips,
+strawberries, potatoes, dahlias, barley, potherbs,
+flax, and cabbages, and the parading and
+comparison of horse-colts, ass-colts, calves,
+heifers, bulls, sows, and boars.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Now, before the advent of this reforming
+Governor, the Bermudians had been accustomed
+to no other competition than that of
+sailing or cricket matches or steeple-chases; to
+no other exhibitions than military reviews;
+all excellent in their way, but now usefully
+varied by a kind of competition that brought
+new comforts to every cottager.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Years have elapsed since the day of this well-remembered
+<i>fête</i>. But the good Governor is
+still affectionately remembered. The Bermudians
+love to show passing strangers the
+sweet orange-tree on Mount Langton which
+still blooms a green and golden monument of
+plain, practical, kind-hearted common sense.
+And this sketch of a remote and insignificant
+dependency has been thought worth
+telling for the benefit, not only of colonial
+Governors, but of well-meaning reformers in
+all parts of the world. If we would do good
+we must not be content with mere talk; we
+must not disdain to commence at our own doors
+by budding—a sweet orange on a bitter citron.</p>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 class='c003'>LONDON PAUPER CHILDREN.</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c004'>High and dry upon a pleasant breezy hilltop
+about seven miles south of London stands
+a house worthy of a visit. Far enough away
+to be quite free from the cloud of smoke, yet
+near enough for easy access from London; it
+is a large house in the country, in and out of
+which a large family of essentially London
+tenants are perpetually going. Walk round
+the hill it stands upon, and a succession of
+charming views present themselves for admiration.
+A far distant horizon bounds a
+country made up of purple woods, rich golden
+brown stripes of corn-fields, and bright green
+meadows. Here young plantations; there
+stately single timber trees; with villas nestling
+under fringes of woods on pleasant slopes,
+whilst in the valley below runs the Croydon Railway,
+linking this charming, quiet country round
+Norwood, to the smoky, busy, useful London.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>The place we speak of is the Pauper-School
+at Norwood, which may be called a factory
+for making harmless, if not useful subjects,
+of the very worst of human material—a place
+for converting those who would otherwise
+certainly be miserable, and most likely vicious,
+into rational, reasonable, and often very useful
+members of society;—in short, a house for
+training a large and wretched class in habits
+of decency, regularity, and order, and leading a
+pitiable section of the great two-million-strong
+family of London from the road to crime into
+that of honest industry and self-respect.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>The exterior of the building has no trace
+of the architectural display that won for the
+school near Manchester the title of a Pauper
+Palace. The exterior of the Norwood house
+is as dingy and ugly as a small brewhouse.
+In shape it reminds one of the old cities,
+built upon no definite plan, but enlarged from
+time to time as the population found it most
+convenient. It is neither square, nor round,
+nor triangular; but then, when we go over it,
+we shall find that the lack of straight lines and
+right angles does not prevent the presence of
+much good, and of a fair amount of comfort
+and happiness within its confines.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>The irregularity of its construction is explained
+by the fact that the place was established
+twenty-seven years ago, not by a public
+body, but by a private individual, Mr. Aubin,
+the present superintendant. The commencement
+of such a place was an epoch in the
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_550'>550</span>history of pauperism in this country. Before
+the time of the benevolent Jonas Hanway, no
+regard was paid to the destitute children of
+the poor, and those young children, whose
+ill-fate it was to be born of pauper parents, in
+town, were condemned to a life that began in
+the gutters of back lanes, and usually ended
+in the gaol, by fever, or more suddenly, on
+the gallows. Hanway secured the passing of
+a law empowering the parishes to collect the
+juvenile paupers and send them into the
+country for nurture and maintenance. It was
+a step in advance to get the children away
+from the dens in which they had previously
+been confined, but the nurture was of a very
+unsatisfactory kind. When an old woman
+applied for parish relief, she had two or three
+children given to her to keep, and out of their
+allowance she was to help to keep herself. She
+usually set them to collect firewood for her;
+or to watch sheep, or to scare crows; and, in
+their search for fuel, they were often taught
+to rob hedges, or fences, or trespass on plantations.
+At seven years’ old they were sent
+back to finish their education in the workhouses,
+and frequently remained there for
+six or seven years without even learning
+their letters. Indeed, to teach them at all
+was regarded as a kind of small treason.
+“Teach paupers to read! What next?”
+was a common exclamation. Reading was,
+by a great many people, considered to be
+a mere premium for laziness—whilst writing
+was thought to be a temptation to forgery,
+and its then certain result—the gallows. To
+collect the pauper children, and “farm them
+out” to persons who would teach as well as
+feed them, was the next step in advance. The
+fruit of this plan was the growth of various
+places where large numbers of the pauper
+rising generation were gathered together in
+houses, the proprietors of which often realised
+large profits upon the moneys allowed for
+maintaining this class of the population.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Taking advantage of the generally and
+loudly expressed public opinion, that “something
+must be done,” the Poor-Law Board
+succeeded in establishing some school districts
+near the metropolis. The first step taken
+was to purchase Mr. Aubin’s place at Norwood,
+and thus take it into their own hands.
+This school had long been regarded as the
+best of its class, and as one where many steps
+of great practical value had been taken for
+the improved treatment of youthful paupers.
+The purchase-money of this school is said to
+have been about eleven thousand pounds, and
+the authorities wisely retained the aid of the
+man who had originated it, to carry out still
+further into effect their improved plans. This
+step was soon followed by others. In the
+publication of the Poor-Law Board, just issued—the
+promoters of our present poor-law
+system long ago saw the mischiefs of this plan,
+and after some years’ consideration, and many
+difficulties, succeeded in procuring an Act of
+Parliament for the establishment of district
+pauper Industrial Schools. But though the
+law was made, it was found impossible to
+overcome the objections raised by parish
+authorities, and it was not carried out to any
+extent, until the terrible calamity of Tooting
+startled all England with the spectacle of
+hundreds of deaths by cholera, in an establishment
+where the little unfortunates were
+“farmed out.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>In the Second Annual Report of the Poor-Law
+Board, Mr. Baines, its President, says,
+that three very important school districts
+have, within the year, been formed in and
+near the metropolis. These are:—</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>“1st. The Central London School District,
+comprising the City of London Union, the East
+London Union, and the St. Saviour’s Union. The
+Board of Management of this district have completed
+all their arrangements and hold their
+regular meetings. They have purchased of Mr.
+Aubin his premises at Norwood for the district
+school, retaining him in the capacity of steward
+or superintendant of the establishment, and have
+appointed an efficient staff of teachers in every
+department. The school is now in full activity,
+upon an improved footing, and nearly eight
+hundred children (nine hundred) are maintained
+and educated in it.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>“2nd. The South Metropolitan School District
+comprised, as originally formed, the Union of St.
+Olave’s, and the large parishes, not in Union, of
+Bermondsey, Camberwell, and Rotherhithe.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>“3rd. The North Surrey School District includes
+the Unions of Wandsworth and Clapham,
+Kingston, Croydon, Richmond, and Lewisham.
+The managers have purchased fifty acres of land
+near Norwood, and have commenced the erection
+of a building capable of accommodating six
+hundred children.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>“It will thus be seen that provision has been
+made in and around London for the proper education
+and training of more than two thousand poor
+children. We have, moreover, sanctioned arrangements
+whereby, when completed, the state of the
+children of other metropolitan parishes will be
+very materially improved.”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>About nine hundred children are congregated
+at Norwood, and out of the whole number there
+is not perhaps a dozen the offspring of decent
+parents. Many are foundlings, picked up at
+the corners of streets, or at the doors of parish
+officers. The names of some of them suggest
+an idea of how they began life. Thus, one
+owned the name of Olive Jewry, whilst
+another was called Alfred City. Others have
+lost both parents by death, and been left
+puling living legacies to the parish, but the
+majority are the children of parents living in
+workhouses. When able-bodied paupers
+claim relief, they are “offered the house.”
+They are received into the Union, and their
+children are sent up to this out-of-town school,
+that fresh air, cleanliness, good food and the
+schoolmaster, may try what can be done to lift
+them up from the slough of pauperism. Let us
+examine the process through which they go.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>The children, on their first appearance at
+this Norwood School, are usually in the most
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_551'>551</span>lamentable plight. Ignorance and dirt, rags
+and vermin, laziness and ill health, diseased
+scalps, and skins tortured by itch, are their
+characteristics. They are the very dregs of
+the population of the largest city in the world—the
+human waifs and strays of the modern
+Babylon; the children of poverty, and misery,
+and crime; in very many cases labouring
+under physical defects, such as bad sight or
+hearing; almost always stunted in their
+growth, and bearing the stamp of ugliness
+and suffering on their features. Generally
+born in dark alleys and back courts, their
+playground has been the streets, where the
+wits of many have been prematurely sharpened
+at the expense of any morals they might have.
+With minds and bodies destitute of proper
+nutriment, they are caught, as it were, by the
+parish officers, like half-wild creatures, roaming
+poverty-stricken amidst the wealth of our
+greatest city; and half-starved in a land
+where the law says no one shall be destitute
+of food and shelter. When their lucky fate
+sends them to Norwood, they are generally
+little personifications of genuine poverty—compounds,
+as somebody says, of ignorance,
+gin, and sprats.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>A number of pauper children having been
+owned as chargeable upon the Central London
+District, to whom the Norwood School now
+belongs, and the requisite papers having been
+filled up, they are sent to Weston Hill.
+Arrived there, and their clothes having been
+steamed, if worth preservation, or burned
+if mere rags,—the new comers are well
+washed, have their hair cut, and are newly
+clad in clean and wholesome, but homely,
+garments. According to their ages, they are
+then drafted into a class; those between two
+and six years pass to the infant school; those
+of greater age are enrolled on the industrial
+side of the establishment. Now the training
+begins. They are all sent before the doctor,
+who usually finds them sallow and sickly; but
+by aid of Nature’s physic,—fresh air,—and
+Nature’s rule of exercise and regularity,
+assisted by extra diet, and with the occasional
+aid of some good London beef and porter,
+very few drugs are wanted, and their looks
+change for the better. Early in August, this
+year,—the period of our visit,—there were but
+two children confined to bed out of more than
+nine hundred; and those two were poor little
+scrofulous shadows of humanity, such as
+may be found in the top wards of hospitals,
+labouring under disease of the hip and spine,—paying
+the penalty of sins committed by
+their parents before them. There had recently
+been an epidemic of measles in the place,
+when that disease destroyed eight of the
+sickliest out of ninety cases. But for this,
+the mortality would not have gone beyond
+one in a hundred through the year. The
+summer is their healthiest season; for winter
+brings chilblains, a disease of poor blood, and
+ophthalmia, to which pauper children seem to
+be especially liable.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>After their introduction to the doctor, the
+bath, the wardrobe, and the pantry, they are
+handed over to the schoolmaster or mistress,
+as the case may be. On the day of our visit,
+two hundred and forty boys were receiving
+instruction in one large new school-room;
+two hundred (infants between two and six
+years old) were being taught in another room;
+two hundred girls were reading, writing, and
+sewing in a third apartment; the rest of the
+occupants being at work, or at drill, or at
+play, in other parts of the establishment.
+The boys are kept four days a week at school,
+and two days at work in shops which we
+shall presently see and describe: the girls
+have three days’ schooling and three days’
+training in household occupations,—such as
+cleaning the house, washing, ironing, mangling,
+and needlework. The way these portions of
+the establishment are arranged may possibly
+furnish materials for a future paper.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>The school for the eldest boys is a long
+room newly built, with an enormous dormitory
+above it. The ventilation has been provided
+for in a way that seems very satisfactory.
+By day the boys are divided into six classes,
+ranged on forms with desks before them, each
+class being separated from the others by a
+curtain which hangs from the ceiling, and is
+sufficiently wide to separate the sections of
+scholars from each other, and to deaden the
+sounds of so large a seminary, but yet not
+wide enough to prevent the master as he
+stands on the side opposite his pupils, from
+getting a view of the entire school. Black
+boards and large slates are amongst the tools
+employed for conveying instruction, but the
+more advanced pupils are supplied with paper
+copy-books for writing lessons. The school
+is under the charge of a chief-master, far more
+competent than those usually found in schools
+beyond the pale of Government inspection.
+He is a B.A. of the University of London, is
+author of a small English grammar; and
+enjoys, as he deserves, a liberal salary. Under
+his hands the pupils appear to make excellent
+progress. The upper classes write well to
+dictation, are ready at figures, and are practised
+in the grammatical construction of
+English words and sentences. Twelve of the
+boys are in training as teachers, and six of
+these are now what is called “pupil-teachers,”
+and are entitled to an allowance of money by
+way of reward from the Privy Council. This
+allowance is set aside for them till they display,
+on examination, a sufficient proficiency
+to entitle them to admission to the training-school
+at Knellar Hall or Battersea. Whilst
+in these higher schools they receive the
+money set aside for them in the earlier stages
+of their school progress, and when, by successive
+examinations, their efficiency is sufficiently
+tested, they pass from the grade of
+pupil to that of master: the boys from
+Knellar Hall being appointed schoolmasters
+to Workhouses; the boys from Battersea to
+be masters of National Schools in various
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_552'>552</span>parts of the country. A boy gets this promotion
+in life by his own merits. For instance,
+at the Norwood Pauper-School, the most apt
+pupil becomes, as elsewhere, the monitor of
+his form or class. When the day of examination
+arrives, he distinguishes himself
+before the Government Inspector of Schools.
+This official is empowered thereupon to select
+him as a “pupil-teacher,” &#38;c.; he becomes an
+apprentice to the art of instruction. To
+encourage the chief-master of the school to
+help on his boys to this reward, an allowance
+of three pounds a year is made to the master
+for each boy who thus distinguishes himself,
+and thus gains promotion. Thus, there being
+twelve boys at Norwood so in training, Mr.
+Imeson, their instructor, gains thirty-six
+pounds a year for his success in bringing
+forward that number of his scholars.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>In appearance, the boys have little to recommend
+them, and it is tolerably evident,
+that if not raised a little in the social scale—if
+not taught to do something and know something—they
+would inevitably belong to the
+class of incurable paupers, who burden poor’s-rates
+and hang about workhouses all their
+lives. Society must educate such boys, if
+only in self-defence. Some of them are at
+first most turbulent, but by patient management
+they gradually subside into the orderly
+arrangements of the place, and often those at
+first most unruly become the quickest boys in
+the school. The energy that would make
+them nuisances, when rightly directed makes
+them most useful.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>When the hours of teaching are over, the
+boys are assembled in one of the large open
+yards belonging to the establishment, and are
+there exercised by the drill-master. This
+official is an ex-non-commissioned officer of
+Guards, who in a short time makes the metamorphosis
+seen on parade. The ungainly,
+slouching, slow lout, is taught to march, wheel
+right or left, in concert with others, punctually
+and accurately. They answer the command,
+“left wheel,” “right form, four deep,” and so
+on, like little soldiers, and seem to like the fun.
+This gives them at once exercise in the fresh
+air, notions of regularity and prompt attention,
+and a habit of obedience to discipline.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>There is also a naval class. Behind the
+school is a playground, two acres in extent,
+and in the centre of this stands a ship.
+True, its deck is of earth, but there are
+bulwarks, real bulwarks all round, and
+rising up above are genuine lofty masts,
+with rigging complete. Up these ropes the
+boys swarm with great delight. At a given
+signal they “man the yards,” give three
+miniature cheers, and then, all in chorus, sing
+God save the Queen. They evidently like
+the fun, pride themselves, boy-like, upon
+their feline power of climbing, and one or two
+of them show their expertness and bravery
+by disdaining the rope-ladder—pardon us,
+the shrouds—and slide down the main-stay
+from the top of the foremast to the bowsprit.
+All these things are evident sources of enjoyment;
+for running, and climbing, and shouting
+in the open air, are natural to the human
+animal in a normal state of existence. Of
+the climbing, there is a story told which
+illustrates the character of a very worthy
+man now passed away. Dr. Stanley, the late
+Bishop of Norwich, paid many visits to this
+school, and always looked on with evident
+pleasure whilst the lads were enjoying themselves
+with their ship. One day the good-natured
+dignitary was looking on, when he
+began to rub his hands together, and presently
+turning to an officer of the place who stood
+by, said in a genial, half confidential tone,
+“If I were not a bishop I’d join in and
+climb that pole myself!”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Besides this drill, or parade, and this exercise
+aloft, the boys, on two days of the week,
+are employed in the Industrial training of the
+place. The smaller boys, in classes of about
+thirty-five, are ranged on benches round a
+large tailor’s shop. Patterns decorate the
+walls, and “corduroys” in all stages, from the
+huge bale to the perfect breeches, are seen all
+round the room. The boys stitch and sew,
+and make and mend, under the instruction of
+a master tailor, a large part of the clothes
+worn in the place. When each boy grows
+bigger he is drafted into a neighbouring shop,
+where, also, under a competent master, he
+learns the craft of St. Crispin. It is curious
+to see thirty or forty little cobblers, all
+in rows, waxing and stitching, and hammering
+on lap-stones, and entering <i><span lang="fr">con amore</span></i>
+into the mysteries of sole and upper leathers,
+brads, pegs, and sparrowbills. When they
+have learned all these things, some of the lads
+pass into a third shop, where they are made
+acquainted with the forge, and anvil, and sledge
+hammer, and where they help to shoe horses,
+construct iron bedsteads, and make and mend
+all the iron-work (and there is a great deal of
+it) required by this family party of nearly a
+thousand souls—pauper children, masters, and
+servants, together. After going through all
+these stages of training, with the incidental
+knowledge picked up in the stables with the
+horses, in the playground with the dogs, when
+helping to feed the pigs, and whilst aiding
+the operation of milking the twenty-five cows
+which supply milk for the house, the boys have
+acquired a great amount of useful knowledge.
+The place is indeed a little colony in itself,
+and if its inmates had not often to pass from it
+back to the sinkholes of London, they might
+leave Norwood almost with the certainty of
+becoming good and prosperous citizens.</p>
+
+<hr class='c011'>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+  <div class='nf-center'>
+    <div>Monthly Supplement of “HOUSEHOLD WORDS,”</div>
+    <div>Conducted by <span class='sc'>Charles Dickens</span>.</div>
+    <div class='c001'><i>Price 2d., Stamped, 3d.</i>,</div>
+    <div class='c012'><span class='large'>THE HOUSEHOLD NARRATIVE</span></div>
+    <div>OF</div>
+    <div>CURRENT EVENTS.</div>
+    <div class='c001'><span class='small'><i>The Number, containing a history of the past month, was issued with the Magazines.</i></span></div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c012'>
+</div>
+<div class='tnotes x-ebookmaker'>
+
+<div class='chapter ph2'>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c013'>
+    <div>TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+</div>
+
+ <ul class='ul_1 c001'>
+    <li>Fixed typos; non-standard spelling and dialect retained.
+
+    </li>
+    <li>Renumbered footnotes.
+    </li>
+  </ul>
+
+</div>
+
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78193 ***</div>
+  </body>
+  <!-- created with ppgen.py 3.57i (with regex) on 2026-02-07 07:19:34 GMT -->
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for eBook #78193
+(https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78193)