"Well, children, a"n"t you glad to see me? May not those busy little fingers stop a moment, just while you jump up and throw your arms about your father"s neck, and kiss him?"
"O yes, we have time for that," said one of the girls, as they both sprang up to kiss their father.
"But we have no time to lose, dear father," said Sally, pressing her cheek to his, and speaking in a kind of coaxing whisper close to his ear, "for these shirts are the last of the dozen we have been making for Mr. Farley, in the Corn-market."
"And as no work can be done to-morrow," added Betsy gravely, who stood with her little hand in her father"s, "we are all working as hard as we can; for mother has promised to take them home on Monday afternoon."
"Either your eyes are very weak to-night, dear wife," said George, "or you have been crying. I"m afraid you work too hard by candlelight."
Susan smiled, and said, "_Working_ does not hurt my eyes,"
and as she spoke, she turned her head and beckoned with her finger to her little boy.
"Why, John, what"s this that I see?" said his father. "What, you in the corner! Come out, and tell me what you have been doing."
"Nay, never mind it, dear husband; John will be very good, I hope, and we had better say no more about what is past."
"Yes, but I must know," said he, drawing John close to him.
"Come, tell me what has been the matter."
John was a plain-spoken boy, and had a straight-forward way of speaking the truth. He came up to his father, and looked full in his face, and said, "The baker came for his money to-night, and would not leave the loaves without mother paid for them; and though he was cross and rough to mother, he said it was not her fault, and that he was sure you had been drinking away all the money; and when he was gone, mother cried over her work, but she did not say any thing. I did not know she was crying, till I saw her tears fall, drop, drop, on her hands; and then I said bad words, and mother sent me to stand in the corner."
"And now, John, you may bring me some coal," said Susan; "there"s a fine lump in the coal-box."
"But first tell me what your bad words were, John," said his father; "not swearing, I hope?"
"No," said John, coloring, but speaking as bluntly as before, "I said that you were a bad man. I said, bad father."
"And they were bad words, I am sure," said Susan, very calmly; "but you are forgiven, and so you may get me the coal."
George looked at the face of his wife, and as he met the tender gaze of her mild eyes now turned to him, he felt the tears rise in his own. He rose up, and as he put the money into his wife"s hands, he said, "There are my week"s wages.
Come, come, hold out both hands, for you have not got all yet. Well, now you have every farthing. Keep the whole, and lay it out to the best advantage, as you always do. I hope this will be a beginning of better doings on my part, and happier days on yours; and now put on your bonnet, and I"ll walk with you to pay the baker, and buy a bushel or two of coal, or any thing else you may be in want of; and when we come back I"ll read a chapter of the Bible to you and the girls, while you get on with the needle-work."
Susan went up stairs to put on her bonnet and shawl, and she remained a little longer, to kneel down on the spot where she had often knelt almost heart-broken in prayer--prayer that her heavenly Father would turn her husband"s heart, first to his Saviour, and then to his wife and children; and that, in the meantime, he would give her patience. She, knelt down this time to pour out her heart in thanksgiving and praise.
The pleasant tones of her husband"s voice called her from her knees.
George Manly told his wife that evening, after the children were gone to bed, that when he saw what the pence of the poor could do towards keeping up a fine house, and dressing out the landlord"s wife and daughters; and when he thought of his own hard-working, uncomplaining Susan, and his children in want, and almost in rags, while he was sitting drinking, and drinking, night after night, more like a beast than a man, destroying his own manly strength, and the fine health G.o.d had given him, he was so struck with sorrow and shame, that he seemed to come to himself at last. He made his determination, from that hour, never again to put the intoxicating gla.s.s to his lips, and he hoped he made it in dependence upon G.o.d for grace and strength to keep it.
It was more than a year after Mrs. Crowder, of the Punch-bowl, had first missed a regular customer from her house, and when she had forgotten to express her wonder as to what could have become of the good-looking carpenter that generally spent his earnings there, and drank and spent his money so freely--
"There, get on as fast as you can, dears; run, girls, and don"t stop for me, your beautiful dresses will be quite spoilt; never mind me, for my levantine is a French silk, and won"t spot."
These words were screamed out as loud as her haste would permit, by Mrs. Crowder, who was accompanying her daughters, one Sunday evening, to the tea-gardens.
She was answered by Miss Lucy, "You know, ma, we can"t run, for our shoes are so tight."
"Then turn into one of these houses, dears," said the mother, who was bustling forward as fast as she could.
"No, indeed," replied the other daughter, who found time to curl her lip with disdain, notwithstanding her haste and her distress, "I"ll not set a foot in such filthy hovels."
"Well, dears, here is a comfortable, tidy place," cried the mother at length, as they hastened forward; "here I"ll enter, nor will I stir till the rain is over; come in, girls, come in. You might eat off these boards, they are so clean."
The rain was now coming down in torrents, and the two young ladies gladly followed their mother"s example, and entered the neat and cleanly dwelling. Their long hair hung dangling about their ears, their c.r.a.pe bonnets had been screened in vain by their fringed parasols, and the skirts of their silk gowns were draggled with mud. They all three began to stamp upon the door of the room into which they had entered with very little ceremony; but the good-natured mistress of the house felt more for their disaster than for her floor, and came forward at once to console and a.s.sist them. She brought forth clean cloths from the dresser-drawer, and she and her two daughters set to work to wipe off, with quick and delicate care, the rain-drops and mud-splashes from the silken dresses of the three fine ladies. The c.r.a.pe hats and the parasols were carefully dried at a safe distance from the fire, and a comb was offered to arrange the uncurled hair, such a white and delicately clean comb as may seldom be seen upon a poor woman"s toilet.
When all had been done that could be done, and, as Miss Lucy said, "they began to look themselves again," Mrs. Crowder, who was lolling back at her ease in a large and comfortable arm-chair, and amusing herself by taking a good stare at every thing and every one in the room, suddenly started forward, and cried out, addressing herself to the master of the house, upon whose Bible and at whose face she had been last fixing her gaze, "Why, my good man, we are old friends: I know your face, I"m certain; still, there is some change in you, though I can"t exactly say what it is."
"I used to be in ragged clothes, and out of health," said George Manly, smiling, as he looked up from his Bible; "I am now, blessed be G.o.d for it, comfortably clad, and in excellent health."
"But how is it," said Mrs. Crowder, "that we never catch a sight of you now?"
"Madam," said be, "I"m sure I wish well to you and all people; nay, I have reason to thank you, for words of yours were the first means of opening my eyes to my own foolish and sinful course. You seem to thrive--so do we. My wife and children were half-naked and half-starved only this time last year. Look at them, if you please, now; for, so far as sweet, contented looks go, and decent raiment befitting their station, I"ll match them with any man"s wife and children.
And now, madam, I tell you, as you told a friend of yours one day last year, that "tis the FOOLS" PENCE which have done all this for us." The fools" pence! I ought to say, the pence earned by honest industry, and spent in such a manner that I can ask the blessing of G.o.d upon the pence."
When Mrs. Crowder and her daughters were gone, George Manly sat without speaking for some considerable time. He was deep in thought, and his gentle, pious wife felt that she knew on what subject he had been thinking so deeply; for when he woke up from his fit of thought, a deep sigh stole from his lips, and he brushed away the tears which had filled his eyes.
"Susan," he said, "what can I render to the Lord for all his goodness to me? From what a fearful depth of ruin have I been s.n.a.t.c.hed! Once I met some of my old companions, who so set upon me to draw me to drink with them, that I thought Satan must have urged them on. Another time, I went walking on, and found myself at the door of the poison-shop, without knowing how I got there; but G.o.d gave me strength to turn instantly away, and not linger a moment to daily with temptation.
"I could not help thinking, as I was reading this holy book, when that showy dame came in from whose hand I so often took the poisonous cup, how much I owed to G.o.d for saving me from ruin, and giving me that peace and satisfaction in religion which I now enjoy; and making me, I hope, a blessing to you all. O, what a love was the love of Christ to poor sinners!
He gave his own blood as our precious ransom; he came to save us from our sins, that we may serve him in newness of life."
The above history, which is taken from a Tract of the Religious Tract Society in London, has its counterpart in the case of mult.i.tudes in our own country. Let him who would not shorten his days, and make his family wretched, and ruin his own soul, resolve with George Manly, "_never again to put the intoxicating gla.s.s to his lips_;" and like him, let him go humbly and with childlike confidence to G.o.d for strength to keep his resolution, and for grace to pardon all his sins, through the blood and righteousness of Christ. Then shall he have peace of mind, and be a blessing in his day; and when this brief life is ended, he shall enter into eternal joy.
PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY.
THE POOR MAN"S HOUSE REPAIRED;
OR,
THE WRETCHED MADE HAPPY.
A NARRATIVE OF FACTS.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Violent drunk with wife and child]
For fifteen years of my married life I was as miserable as any woman could be. Our house was the picture of wretchedness externally, and it looked still more wretched within. The windows were patched, the walls shattered, the furniture defaced and broken, and every thing was going to ruins.
It had not always been so: once my home was happy, and I used to take much pleasure and some pride in hearing the neighbors say, "How neat and trim neighbor N----"s house always looks!" But they could not say so long. One thing after another changed. Our table was no longer spread with comfortable food, nor surrounded with cheerful faces; but there were scanty meals, sour looks, and loud and angry words; while, do the best I could, I was not able to conceal the tatters of my own and my children"s clothing. My husband is a mechanic; his employment is good, and he might have made his family as happy as any family in the place; but he was in the habit of taking ardent spirit every day. _He_ thought it did him good; _I_ knew it did not, for I found him every day more and more unkind. Our comforts, one by one, were stripped away, till at last I saw myself the wife of a confirmed drunkard.
I well remember, one evening, I was sitting by the fire, mending my poor boy"s tattered jacket. My heart was very sad. I had been thinking of the happy evenings I had spent with my husband before our marriage; of the few pleasant years that succeeded; of the misery that then came; of the misery yet to come; and for me there seemed no ray of hope or comfort.
My husband was a terror to his family, and a nuisance to the neighborhood; my children were idle, ragged, and disobedient; myself a heart-broken wife and wretched mother. While I thought of all this, I could no longer retain my composure, but, dropping my work, I leaned my head upon my hand and wept bitterly. My husband had been absent all day, and I was now expecting him home every minute. It was growing late, so I wiped away my tears as well as I could, and put the embers together, to make my fireside look as inviting as possible. But I dreaded my husband"s return--his sharp voice and bitter words pained me to the heart, and rougher treatment than all this I often experienced from him who had once been to me all that I could wish.
At length the door opened, and Robert entered. I saw by his flushed countenance and angry expression that I had better remain silent; so, with a sinking heart, I placed a chair for him by the fire, and continued my work without speaking.