On this page

• Text (1)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    " Your snow-balls don't hurt me to-day / 9 said he , smiling , as one passed close by his shoulder : " but I should not like them if I were following a funeral . " € < These don't hurt , " said the boy who had flung the first handful at the mourner : and as he spoke , he looked round for a stone to put into the one he was making .

    " Did you ever walk behind a coffin ? " asked M . " Not I , ' * said the boy . " If you had , you ' would know what it is to be made game of at such a time . It is mischievous to throw stones in the shape of snow-balls ; but it is cruel to mock people when they are in grief . —Whose funeral was that ?"

    " I don't know . " " I bid you ask , ' said his mother , who had come out of her house on seeing the gentleman talking to her boy . «* Why don't you ask , as your father bid you ?" " You want to know whether they died of the fever , " said the boy ; " but what care I whether the dead dog was hanged or drowned ?" " You would like somebody to care when your turn comes , " said M .

    " No more than I should care for myself , " said the boy . •* What does it signify ? I saw a man drowned once , and I have seen many a one hanged ; and I would as soon be one as the other . " " Hold your tongue , you wretch , " cried his mother . " I hope , Sir , he does not know what he is talking about . " "I do though , " said the boy : " and if I am hanged , remember you taught me the way . I saw you steal before ever I tried my hand at it ; and so-I'll say . "

    His mother had turned into the house before he finished , and M . followed her . When she perceived this , she turned fiercely round , and asked him what he meant by making her own children betray her in the face of her neighbours . ¦ I came with no evil purpose , " said M ., " nor is it my business or that of the neighbours to find out whether your son speaks truth or falsehood respecting you . I see that he is a trouble to you , and I should be glad to help or comfort you if I could . "

    " Never mother had such a trouble , " replied the poor woman . " I don know which is worse , —to have him in sight , treating us in the way he does , or to be dreading to hear of the wickedness he commits , day and night , when he is away from us . " And then she went on to relate how her son often absented himself for

    days together , supporting himself she knew not how ; but certainly by no honest means . There was no excuse of poverty for this at present - , his father brought in such wages as might keep the family above want .

    Untitled Article

    734 The Early Sowing .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1831, page 734, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2603/page/10/