Republican vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1857, 1849-05-21
he copld sleep the longer.

''Well school-master," says he, putting his
head in at the door, chow dost thee get on, and
how the lads ~
'sWhy, Pm pretty sharp" he answers, econ
sidering the time And the lads, why bless ye,
they get on surprising. Halo, boys, you fourth
class, get up and show Mr. Tapp your learning.
Now-be quiet-spel goose-goose gay"
FG-G-o-G-u-s-e," spet boy.
every good, Jack, go the top Of the class.-1
see you know goose when you taste it. Now
you third boy, spell apple-pudding."
And the old man rubbed his hands and looked
! triumphantly at the exciseman.
FH "a
S'Hallo there, Ned,oNed was abashed, so the
expert boy took up the word.
appel" very good; ''p-u-ed- en-pudding'
every good boy, very good boys Well, Mr.
Tapp, getting on nicely, amt they %
"Well | don't know roared the exciseman
till he was red in the face, Kin my time they
spelt goose and apple-pudding differently
Gay ay!i' interrupted the old man, ''people's
got new way for most things, and for spelling
in the bargain, reckon"
The excisenan roared himself out of the
school-house and the whole way up the village
street. And the wrong spelling and the right
spelling were matter for gossip that night by the
smithy fire, and on the aleIhouse bench And
here the exclseman went so far as to eXposu-
late with the churchwardens
'EWhy, after all, they argued, t|what do lads
want with larning2 They're bad enough already,
master And it don't do to say word agin the
squirrels and the college peoples 'pinions."
Whether Joe would have played the truant
and blotted paper after this do not know; for
his father getting wet, had a relapse, and died a
few weeks after this circumstance. Here was
end to all Joe's prospects OF learning, had
there been teachers for he went forthwith to the
plough and to farm drudgery it was the only
chance there was of saving his mother from the
parish As he boarded at home, there was the
patch of garden ground and the cow to see after,
even when the days work was over; still with
all this, there was often spare half-hour that
might have been better spent than in the village
street, or by the smithy fire, had there been a
school one degree above insult to common sense,
or one individual, recognising the lofty destinies
OF man willing to raise this miserable population
out of its brutishness and ignorance.
1t was hard and dreary winter after the poor
ploughmans death, and want and sorrow were
in his Widows household. One night of it, as
young Joe was returning home late from helping
to plough distant field of the s'school gift" a
wealthy farmer of the neighbo1hood overlook
him. He was so intoxicated that he could hard
ly guide his horse, and evidently without exact
ly recognising the lad he stopped him, and bid
| him return up the lane half mile or so as he
j had dropped his purse.
"And mind, my lad, he roared, 'thee pick'st
it all up, for though dunna know how much
there war init some ont may "a dropped out"
Back young Joe trudged, carefully exploring
the miry road as he went on, and found the can
vass bag Just where the farmer had reckoned.-
No money could have dropped out, for string
was tied tightly round it ; but it felt heavy, and
Joe's first impulse was to open it, Just one of
the village boys would have done. "But no."
thought the lad, II won't even unite the string,
won't even look, for thatll be halfway to steal
ing, and I'll be all honest" So he grasped the
purse tight in his hand, and trudged his way
back, thinking, however, as he went along, how
one OF the pounds within would save the pig at
home from being sold to pay the rent, and make
his poor mothers wan face look glad. Joe's re-
ward for the safe delivery of the purse was
lump OF bread and cheese but better was his
lightness of heart all that week, ay, and many
weeks after. The temptation withstood was a
great lesson learnt-those lessons are always
our divinest and most lasting ones
The very next Sunday, instead of casting
down mis- eyes abashed upon the ground, he look
ed straight up into the squires lady's face as she
walked haughtily up the church aisle; for the
squire had lately returned to England, bringing
with him several sons older than the plough lad
These boys as village gossip said ''were might
lily learned = though the squire himself, as the
eXciseman had reported, intended to vote, when
he got into parliament, against the nation edu-
eating clod -hoppers, but if it would like to grant
million or two to the colleges, he'd say some
thing.
Be this as ii may, one of these youths, said to
be the most learned of the squirrels sons, and the
one he destined for his three sinecure livings,
was usually he who spoke toughest and haught-
lest to poor lads like Joe.
One glorious spring morning as Joe was
ploughing lonely upland field, the young squire
rode up to gate, by which the lad was turning
his plough, and shouted out, ''Hallo, you fellow,
throw open the gate = and before the lad could
move round his plough there came threat that
the whip should be laid about him if he did not
make haste. Joe obeyed, for it had been part of
his servile teaching, to reverence all belonging
to the parson the, squire; but once more alone,
he. stood in moody silence by his plough, orna-
ture taught him that his was the nobler spirit,
crushed by what ?-the want of learning. For
say what you will, nature never yet endowed
man withhe nobility, without consciousness of
the investiture. And in that minute as he stood,
the lowlands stretching far away in all their
beauty, the power of words, from that great
scorn, seemed to have birth and the daisy at
his feet, the skyark above, the river like silver
thread winding round the landscape, were things
that filled his heart, but not with sadness. And
from this hour the new want of book learning,
the 10 peSlOW IL, COulu not close
wholly the ever fresh book of nature He was
poet, and could tell of the daisy in verse tho
he could not have read its little history
A dull round of years went by, chequered for
the poor ploughboy with many cares and sor-
rows. Even great faculties like his were par
alyzed by daily intercourse with one monotony
of ignorance whereas had there been the least
cherishing power to act upon what nature had
so kindly given, these same faculties might have
broadened out, not merely into possible medita-
ton, but into action. Noble honesty thus per-
ished noble faculties were negatived and why
because knowledge was denied The beershop
and the smithy were the only schools As for
the parson of the parish he only came now
and then to preach; few of the farmers round
could read and the only learned people, those
up at the hall, considered the parish schoolmas-
ter, then enjoying the fruits Of his sinecure Of
fee, quite equal to the intellectual necessities Of