My home, then, when I at last find a home,--is a cottage; a little

room with whitewashed walls and a sanded floor, containing four

painted chairs and a table, a clock, a cupboard, with two or three

plates and dishes, and a set of tea-things in delf. Above, a

chamber of the same dimensions as the kitchen, with a deal bedstead

and chest of drawers; small, yet too large to be filled with my

scanty wardrobe: though the kindness of my gentle and generous

friends has increased that, by a modest stock of such things as are

necessary.

It is evening. I have dismissed, with the fee of an orange, the

little orphan who serves me as a handmaid. I am sitting alone on

the hearth. This morning, the village school opened. I had twenty

scholars. But three of the number can read: none write or cipher.

Several knit, and a few sew a little. They speak with the broadest

accent of the district. At present, they and I have a difficulty in

understanding each other's language. Some of them are unmannered,

rough, intractable, as well as ignorant; but others are docile, have

a wish to learn, and evince a disposition that pleases me. I must

not forget that these coarsely-clad little peasants are of flesh and

blood as good as the scions of gentlest genealogy; and that the

germs of native excellence, refinement, intelligence, kind feeling,

are as likely to exist in their hearts as in those of the best-born.

My duty will be to develop these germs: surely I shall find some

happiness in discharging that office. Much enjoyment I do not

expect in the life opening before me: yet it will, doubtless, if I

regulate my mind, and exert my powers as I ought, yield me enough to

live on from day to day.

Was I very gleeful, settled, content, during the hours I passed in

yonder bare, humble schoolroom this morning and afternoon? Not to

deceive myself, I must reply--No: I felt desolate to a degree. I

felt--yes, idiot that I am--I felt degraded. I doubted I had taken

a step which sank instead of raising me in the scale of social

existence. I was weakly dismayed at the ignorance, the poverty, the

coarseness of all I heard and saw round me. But let me not hate and

despise myself too much for these feelings; I know them to be wrong-

-that is a great step gained; I shall strive to overcome them. To-

morrow, I trust, I shall get the better of them partially; and in a

few weeks, perhaps, they will be quite subdued. In a few months, it

is possible, the happiness of seeing progress, and a change for the

better in my scholars may substitute gratification for disgust.




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