The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-02-09 00:00:00

had finished the hater part of what I wante

as I could hear Mary (Who had been waiting up to clean
the room overnight so that she might have nothing to do
in the morning to prevent her being ready dressed long
before the visitors came) knocking the things about below

in a dreadful ill-humou; at being lept up so late; and as
it wasn't worth while having a fresh candle put up just to
do the few little odd jobs that remained, I rang the bell
for Mary ; and lighting nomma's darling little pet of a
lighting

got to my room

lung my beau'

white trousers ready for him in the nun
scarcely keep my eyes open while-Mary
and was so glad to get into bed, that I

s undoir

just as I was dozing off, I remembered it, and told Mary, eve of a great and glo.rious a.... __
who was banging up my things, to be sure and turn it Report of Henry Austin, Esq., C.L.
down before she left the room; instead of which, the THRESHING CORN IN SPAIN.—.AII classes here gain
minx, (who I'm sure was half fuddled at the time,) went their-bread by making it, and the water-mills and mule
and turned the thing the wrong way, like a stupid; so mills are never still ; women and children are busy nice
that there were both dear Edward and myself sleeping in ing out earthy particles from the grain, which get r.
a state of blessed innocence, while the filthy thing was from the common mode of threshing on a floor in the opet
smoking away as hard as it could go all night, just for all air, which is at once Biblical and Homeric. At the out-
the world like the funnel of a steam-boat, and sending side of the villages, in corn-growing districts, a smooth
out soot-enough to have smothered a whole regiment. open " threshing-floor" is prepared, with a hard surface,
As I had got all the next day upon my mind, luckily I like a fives court : it is called the era, and is the precise
awoke as soon as it was light in the morning ; and when I Roman area. The sheaves of corn art) spread out on it,
turned round and saw my dear Edward's face an inch and four horses yoked most classically to a low crate or
thick of black, I really thought at first that I was in bed barrow, composed of planks armed with flints, &c., which
with a filthy negro. So I gave him a good shaking, and I i called a trillo : on this side the driver is seated, who
and no sooner had he ruv 'd his- ey, ,es the beasts round and round over the_erushed hes-

woke him directly
open and looked at me, than the brute burst out laughing
and declared that I looked just like a chimney sweep.
gave a scream and jumped out of the bed just like light-
ning—if I may be allowed so strong an expression— and
there was the whole of the place one mass of smuss : and
the beautiful clean dimity curtains, that had not been up
a week—and the white counterpane—and the toilet covers
and the window blinds—and the towels—and my face—
and my night-cap—looking just as if they had been all
washed in Indian ink ; and, what nearly drove me right
out of my senses—my beautiful white satin bridal robes
were actually the same as if some evil-minded person had
been dragging them—just for the pleasure of the thing—
up and down the chimney, and positively would have in-
duced one, at first sight, to believe that a body had been
led to the altar in bornbazeen. I declare the beastly sooty
stuff was everywhere,—there was a shovelful, at least, in
my white satin shoes—and my white gloves were like black

Thus the grain is shaken out of the ears and the straw tn.-
I turated ; the latter becomes food for horses, as the former
does for men. When the heap is sufficiently bruised, it
is removed and winnowed by being thrown up in the air ;
the light winds carry off the chaff, while the heavy corn
falls to the ground. The whole operation is truly pictu-
resque and singular. The scene is a crowded one, as
many cultivators contribute to the mass and share in the
labour ; their wives and children cluster around, clad in

They are sometimes
e goo of t►re under boughs, reeds, and

kid both inside and out—andit had even got right up my
nostrils—and I do verily believe that a quantity had gone

down my throat, for I'generally sleep with my mouth
open. But what annoyed me so that I could hardly bear
myself, was that Edward kept chuckling at all my distress,
Oust like a man—for of course he knew he wouldn't have
the cleaning of it.) But when I showed him the grubby
state that his ducks were in, I was glad to see how angry
it made him. And then of course it was all his mother-

penny lamps ; anu t really tnougnt t snoula nave
obliged to go into hysterics when I heard him say that the
next time he caught my dear, respected mamma in his
house,.he'd pack her off with a flea in her ear ! And a
pretty situation I was in, to be sure. I daren't for thc
life of me open my mouth, for fear that the hussy should
leave me at a moment's notice, at such a time when, bad
as she was, it was impossible to do without her ; and there

didn't know how on earth I was ever to receive my friends
as I really hadn't a single thing to pat on.—From " Thi
Greatest Plague in Life."