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    A VILLAGE SKETCH. 407

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    It Is Most Provable That The Reader Has ...

    - ; . Mr . _Clieever liad "been sitting for hours , smoking * his pipe and caressing his dogwhich looked if it kneall about the rain

    , up as w _^ being I never a blessing said the . farmer could not get tired of smoking ; and he

    had had enough of it on that blessed day in all conscience . He felt thisand he somehow felttoothat he had had enough of silence ,

    enoug , h of solitude , and enoug , , h of musing : and when a man has had enough of everything he likes best that is the time when he

    most wishes for something else . Mr . C . wished for some little thing or other by way of change . Hising to his feet , he stretched

    himself with an extraordinary inspiration , accompanied by so sudden and startling a sound , that Carlo leaped to his feet in evident

    apprehension . It was perhaps fortunate for Miss Rayner that she had chosen this day for her advent ; a circumstance , by the way , of which

    Mr . Cheever was unapprised . At this very time the lady was laboring down the almost impassable lane on an ass ! a regular

    bigheaded fur-faced ass ; and behind was a lad panting beneath her trunk . It is painful to reflect on what her situation might have

    been but for the accidental encounter with the long-eared steed and its rider

    . . Most fortunately for herself , Miss Rayner bore a striking resemblance to her late motherand this circumstance affected and utterly

    disarmed her stern matter , -of-fact uncle . He made no show of reception but not onlthe domesticsbut the lady herself , perceived

    that ; she was no intruder y . Ifinstead , of presuming on the good uncle ' s kindnessshe had possessed , the least tact , she might have

    she haps commanded found more . herself as No much , sooner possessed , of did her of she own a enter mysterious way the as hosp was power itable good and dwelling for she her resolved 1 , than

    per-, to stretch it to its limit . Mr . C . directed that particular care should be observed in airing sheets , blankets , etc ., and with his own hands

    pres pared trike her her an with affcer surprise -supper . potation She was , the agreeabl excellence y disappointed of which seemed in the to

    • have ' * plain the fare binding " of a and farm loosing house of , and her concluded uncle ' s purse that -strings if she could she mi onl ght y arti

    not be so very badly off after all . But absolute wants supplied , - ficial ones clamoured for attention . Books are a necessity we admit , excellent

    and Mr . _Cheever had plenty of them , all well bound and in orderBut Miss Rayner turned with disgust from divines , historians ,

    . monthl and poets numbers . On a familiar side table to her lay what . On appeared these she rather pounced like . some The eye

    first was y an account of the " Conversion and happy death of Sarah Wilson / ' and the next was a " Remarkable instance of judgment

    on a blasphemer who was struck dead , " etc . Her disgust was irr How epressible was . the unfortunate lady to spend her time . Visit the

    p whit oor ? was ' Ug herself h ! the . Everything only poor * person relating for to whose their improvement comfort she , cared which

    A Village Sketch. 407

    A VILLAGE SKETCH . 407

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Feb. 1, 1860, page 407, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01021860/page/47/