would have sent Tom to a surgeon, who would have done no more for him than you have done; for in those inflammations the most skilful surgeon could only apply a poultice. Your kindness in dressing the wound yourself, will, I doubt not, perform the cure at the expense of that threepenny loaf and a little hog's-lard. And I will take care that Tom shall have a good supply of rice from the subscription."-" And he shan't want for skimmilk," said Mrs. White; "and was he the best lord in the land, in the state he is in, a dish of good rice-milk would be better for him than the richest meat."

THE PARISH MEETING.

On the tenth of August, the vestry held another meeting, to consult on the best method of further assisting the poor. The prospect of abundant crops now cheered every heart. Farmer White, who had a mind to be a little jocular with his desponding neighbours, said, "Well, neighbour Jones, all the wheat was killed, I suppose! the barley is all dead at the root!" Farmer Jones looked sheepish, and said, "To be sure, the crops had turned out better than he thought." "Then," said Dr. Shepherd, "let us learn to trust Providence another time; let our experience of his past goodness strengthen our faith."

Among other things, they agreed to subscribe for a large quantity of rice, which was sold out to the poor at a very low price, and Mrs. White was so kind as to undertake the trouble of selling it. After their day's work was over, all who wished to buy at these reduced rates, were ordered to come to the farm on the Tuesday evening. Dr. Shepherd dropped in at the same time; and when Mrs. White had done weighing her rice, the Doctor spoke as follows:

My honest friends, it has pleased God, for some wise end, to visit this land with a scarcity, to which we have been but little accustomed. There are some idle, evil-minded people, who are on the watch for public distresses; not that they may humble themselves under the mighty hand of God, (which is the true use to be made of all troubles,) but that they may benefit themselves by disturbing the public peace. These people, by riot and drunkenness, double the evil which they pretend to cure. Riot will complete our misfortunes, while peace, industry, and good management, will go near to cure them. Bread, to be sure, is uncommonly dear. Among the various ways of making it cheaper, one is, to reduce the quality of it, another to lessen the quantity we consume. If we cannot get enough of coarse wheaten bread, let us make it of other grain. Or let us mix one half of potatoes, and one half of wheat. what I eat in my own family; it is pleasant and wholesome. Our blessed Saviour ate barley bread, you know, as we are told in the last month's Sunday Reading of the Cheap Repository, which I hope you have all heard, as I desired the master of the Sunday-school to read it just after evening-service, when I know many of the parents are apt to call in at the school. This is a good custom, and one of those little books shall be often read at that time.

This last is

"My good women, I truly feel for you at this time of scarcity; and I am going to show my good-will, as much by my advice as my subscription. It is my duty, as your friend and minister, to tell you, that one

half of your present hardships is owing to bad management. I often meet your children without shoes and stockings, with great luncheons of the very whitest bread, and that three times a day. Half that quantity, and still less if it were coarse, put into a dish of good onion or leek porridge, would make them an excellent breakfast. Many, too, of the very poorest of you, eat your bread hot from the oven; this makes the difference of one loaf in five; I assure you 'tis what I cannot afford to do. Come, Mrs. White, you must assist me a little. I am not very knowing in these matters myself; but I know that the rich would be twice as charitable as they are, if the poor made a better use of their bounty. Mrs. White, do give these poor women a little advice how to make their pittance go further than it now does. When you lived with me, you were famous for making us nice cheap dishes, and I dare say you are not less notable now you manage for yourself."

"Indeed, neighbours," said Mrs. White, "what the good Doctor says is very true. A halfpenny worth of oatmeal, or groats, with a leek or onion, out of your own garden, which costs nothing, a bit of salt, and a little coarse bread, will breakfast your whole family. It is a great mistake at any time to think a bit of meat is so ruinous, and a great load of bread so cheap. A poor man gets seven or eight shillings a week; if he is careful, he brings it home. I dare not say how much of this goes for tea in the afternoon, now sugar and butter are so dear, because I should have you all upon me; but I will say, that too much of this little goes even for bread, from a mistaken notion that it is the hardest fare. This, at all times, but particularly just now, is bad management. Dry pease, to be sure, have been very dear lately; but now they are plenty enough. I am certain then, that if a shilling or two of the seven or eight was laid out for a bit of coarse beef, a sheep's head, or any such thing, it would be well bestowed. I would throw a couple of pound of this into the pot, with two or three handfuls of grey pease, an onion, and a little pepper. Then I would throw in cabbage or turnip, and carrot, or any garden stuff that was most plenty: let it stew two or three hours, and it will make a dish fit for his majesty. The working men should have the meat, the children don't want it; the soup will be thick and substantial, and requires no bread."

RICE-MILK.

"You who can get skim-milk, as all our workmen can, have a great advantage. A quart of this, and a quarter of a pound of the rice you have just bought, a little bit of all-spice, and brown sugar, will make a dainty and cheap dish."

"Bless your heart!" muttered Amy Grumble, who looked as dirty as a cinder-wench, with her face and fingers all daubed with snuff; ricemilk, indeed! it is very nice, to be sure, for those who can dress it; but we have not a bit of coal; rice is of no use to us without firing." "And yet," said the Doctor, "I see your tea-kettle boiling twice every day, as I pass by the poor-house, and fresh butter at thirteen-pence a-pound on your shelf." "O dear sir,” cried Amy, "a few sticks serve to boil the tea-kettle." "And a few more," said the Doctor, "will boil the ricemilk, and give twice the nourishment at a quarter of the expense."

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RICE PUDDING.

"Pray, Sarah," said the Doctor, "how did you use to make that pudding my children were so fond of? And I remember, when it was cold, we used to have it in the parlour for supper." "Nothing more easy," said Mrs. White: "I put half a pound of rice, two quarts of skimmilk, and two ounces of brown sugar." Well," said the Doctor," and how many will this dine?" "Seven or eight, sir." Very, well; and what will it cost?" Why, sir, it did not cost you so much, because we baked it at home, and I used our own milk; but it will not cost above sevenpence to those who pay for both. Here, too, bread is saved." Pray, Sarah, let me put in a word," said Farmer White: "I advise my men to raise each a large bed of parsneps. They are very nourishing, and very profitable. Sixpenny worth of seed, well sowed, and trod in, will produce more meals than four sacks of potatoes; and, what is material to you who have so little ground, it will not require more than an eighth part of the ground which the four sacks will take, Providence having contrived, by the very formation of this root, that it shall occupy but a very small space. Parsneps are very good the second day warmed in the frying-pan, and a little rasher of pork or bacon will give them a nice flavour."

Dr. Shepherd now said, "As a proof of the nourishing quality of parsneps, I was reading in a history book this very day, that the American Indians make a great part of their bread of parsneps, though Indian corn is so famous; it will make a little variety too."

A CHEAP STEW.

"I remember," said Mrs. White, a cheap dish, so nice that it makes my mouth water. I peel some raw potatoes, slice them thin, put the slices into a deep frying-pan, or pot, with a little water, an onion, and a bit of pepper. Then I get a bone or two of a breast of mutton, or a little strip of salt pork, and put into it. Cover it down close, keep it in the steam, and let it stew for an hour."

"You really get me an appetite, Mrs. White, by your dainty receipts,” said the Doctor. "I am resolved to have this dish at my own table.”— "I could tell you another very good dish, and still cheaper," answered she. "Come, let us have it," cried the Doctor. "I shall write all down as soon as I get home, and I will favour anybody with a copy of these receipts who will call at my house."-" And I will do more, sir," said Mrs. White," for I will put any of these women in the way how to dress it the first time, if they are at a loss. But this is my dish

"Take two or three pickled herrings, put them into a stone jar, fill it up with potatoes, and a little water, and let it bake in the oven till it is done. I would give one hint more," added she; "I have taken to use nothing but potato starch; and though I say it, that should not say it, nobody's linen in a common way looks better than ours."

I

The Doctor now said, "I am sorry for one hardship which many poor people labour under, I mean the difficulty of getting a little milk. wish all farmers' wives were as considerate as you are, Mrs. White. little milk is a great comfort to the poor, especially when their children

A

are sick; and I have known it answer to the seller as well as to the buyer, to keep a cow or two on purpose to sell it out by the quart, instead of making butter and cheese."

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"Easter

Sir," said Farmer White, "I beg leave to say a word to the men, if you please, for all your advice goes to the women. If you will drink less gin, you may get more meat. If you abstain from the ale-house, you may, many of you, get a little one-way beer at home." "Ay, that we can, farmer," said poor Tom the thatcher, who was now got. well. Monday for that-I say no more. A word to the wise." The farmer smiled, and went on : "The number of public-houses in many a parish brings on more hunger and rags than all the taxes in it, heavy as they are. All the other evils put together hardly make up the sum of that one. We are now raising a fresh subscription for you. This will be our rule of giving. We will not give to sots, gamblers, and sabbath-breakers. Those who do not set their young children to work on week-days, and send them to school and church on Sundays, deserve little favour. No man should keep a dog till he has more food than his family wants. If he feeds them at home, they rob his children; if he starves them, they rob his neighbours. We have heard in a neighbouring city, that some people carried back the subscription loaves, because they were too coarse; but we hope better things of you." Here Betty Plane begged, with all humility, to put in a word: 66 Certainly," said the Doctor, we will listen to all modest complaints, and try to redress them." "You are pleased to say, sir," said she, "that we might find much comfort from buying coarse bits of beef. And so we might; but you do not know, sir, that we could seldom get them, even when we had the money, and times were so bad." "How so, Betty?" Sir, when we go to butcher Jobbins, for a bit of shin, or any other lean piece, his answer is, You can't have it to-day. The cook at the great house has bespoke it for gravy, or the Doctor's maid (begging your pardon, sir,) has just ordered it for soup.' Now, sir, such kind gentlefolks are not aware that this gravy and soup not only consume a great deal of meat, which, to be sure, those have a right to do who can pay for it, but that it takes away those coarse pieces which the poor would buy, if they bought at all: for, indeed, the rich have been very kind, and I don't know what we should have done without them."

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"I thank you for the hint, Betty," said the Doctor," and I assure you I will have no more gravy soup. My garden will supply me with soups that are both wholesomer and better; and I will answer for my lady at the great house, that she will do the same. I hope this will become a general rule, and then we shall expect that butchers will favour you in the prices of the coarse pieces, if we who are rich buy nothing but the prime. In our gifts we shall prefer, as the farmer has told you, those who keep steadily to their work. Such as come to the vestry for a loaf, and do not come to church for the sermon, we shall mark; and prefer those who come constantly whether there are any gifts or not. But there is one rule from which we never will depart. Those who have been seen aiding or abetting any riot, any attack on butchers, bakers, wheat-mows, mills, or millers, we will not relieve; but with the quiet, contented, hardworking man, I will share my last morsel of bread. I shall only add, though it has pleased God to send us this visitation as a punishment, yet

we may convert this short trial into a lasting blessing, if we all turn over a new leaf. Prosperity had made most of us careless. The thoughtless profusion of some of the rich could only be exceeded by the idleness and bad management of some of the poor. Let us now at last adopt that good old maxim, every one mend one. And may God add his blessing!"

The people now cheerfully departed with their rice, resolving, as many of them as could get milk, to put one of Mrs. White's receipts in practice, and an excellent supper they had.

THE HISTORY OF HESTER WILMOT.

BEING THE SECOND PART OF "THE SUNDAY SCHOOL,'

HESTER WILMOT was born in the parish of Weston, of parents who maintained themselves by their labour; they were both of them ungodly, it is no wonder therefore they were unhappy. They lived badly togetherand how could they do otherwise? for their tempers were very different, and they had no religion to smooth down this difference, or to teach them that they ought to bear with each other's faults. Rebecca Wilmot was a proof that people may have some right qualities, and yet be but bad characters, and utterly destitute of religion. She was clean, notable, and industrious. Now, I know some folks fancy that the poor who have these qualities need have no other-but this is a sad mistake, as I am sure every page in the Bible would show; and it is a pity people do not consult it oftener. They direct their ploughing and sowing by the information of the almanack, why will they not consult the Bible for the direction of their hearts and lives? Rebecca was of a violent, ungovernable temper; and that very neatness which is in itself so pleasing, in her became a sin, for her affection for her husband and children was quite lost in an overanxious desire to have her house reckoned the nicest in the parish. Rebecca was also a proof that a poor woman may be as vain as a rich one, for it was not so much the comfort of neatness, as the praise of neatness, which she coveted. A spot on her hearth, or a bit of rust on a brass candlestick, would throw her into a violent passion. Now, it is very right to keep the hearth clean and the candlestick bright, but it is very wrong so to set one's affections on a hearth, or a candlestick, as to make one'sself unhappy if any trifling accident happens to them; and if Rebecca had been as careful to keep her heart without spot, or her life without blemish, as she was to keep her fire-irons free from either, she would have been held up in this history, not as a warning, but a pattern, and in that case her nicety would have come in for a part of the praise. It was no fault in Rebecca, but a merit, that her oak table was so bright you could almost see to put your cap on in it; but it was no merit, but a fault, that when John, her husband, laid down his cup of beer upon it so as to leave a mark, she would fly out into so terrible a passion, that all the children were forced to run to corners; now, poor John having no corner to run to,

* See p. 103.