Eastern times., 1855-05-10
G9t Storp Caller.
From Household Words.
THE CLEANER.

liz 0AGdxN Lib
ssThey have all been touched and found base metal"
SHAKsPEARE.
So this is my return to nay native village
This is nv reception from relatives who owed
me much!' Thus thought, rather than said,
a poor looking old man, as he stood leaning
over the gate of newly cleared wheat field,
in the bright, busiling, busy harvest time
sOne,' exclaimed he. as his musings took
tone of passion which broke unconsciously in
TO words, sdne-yonder portly landlady, for
sooih, sitting in her bar, as she is pleased TO
call it-her bar, quotha In my young days
it was the little boarded parlor opening from
the tap-room A bar in the old Red Lion
What shall we hear of next! One. bedecked
and bedizened, with her gown like rainbow,
her fringed apron, and the cap stuck out with
flowers, sitting in her bar, if that be its style
and title, among her glasses and punch bowls,
with bell upon her table and net of lemons
dangling above her head she, Miss Collins,
as she calls herself-she used to answer to the
name of Jenny Collins twenty years ago-re-
fused point blank TO acknowledge me denied
to my face that she had ever seen me called
me cheat and an imposter wondered at my
impudence in attempting to pass my self off
for her dear uncle, Michael Norris threatened
me with the stocks and the nd-house, the
Justice and the Jail Precious mink! She
whom | rescued from drudgery and starvation,
hale 81 b,lf
the stiugy, termagant clear-s,archer, in Bed
ford Marsh whom | set up in that very Red
Lion-perched upon her throne, in the arm
chair, in the bar-purchased the lease, the
furniture, the good will paid her first years
rent; stocked her cellars; clapped hundred
pound bank note into her hand, And now
that come home, old and lame, sick and rag
ged, she reviles me as vagabond and an I'M
poster, and tells me to be thankful to her COM
passion and Observation-Disclosures that she does
not send for the constable 10 carry me to Jail
LIAR that she is base, ungrateful, perjured
liar for she knew me. / saw that she knew
me ay, as well as knew her. She would
be glad to be no more altered in the years that
have changed her from slim girl of twenty
five to bloated woman of FIVE and forty, than
], in those same years, with all my grefs
TIien her brother-faugh 1t maddens me
to think of their baseness-whom l educated
and apprenticed, finding him money afterwards
to put him into partnership with old Jones,
the thriving linen draper. He, indeed, did
not pretend to deny that might be his uncle;
but, grant that | were, what claim had | upon
his charity, more than any other starving
wretch, What was l TO hint He pitied
ane, heaven knew but what could / expect
from him! o, the smooth speaking, soft
spoken knave, with his pity and his charity
Hypocrite in look and word His tone was
as gentle as if he had been bidding me well
come TO bed and board for my whole life long.
What fawning parasite that would have been
now, if ha accosted him like a rich man
Well, there is some virtue in those rags, since
they teach false tongues TO speak the truth.
Then came my cousin Anthony. whose
daughter / portioned, whose runaway son
clothed and sent 10 sea. And this Anthony is
now a great meal mana rich miser, who
could buy up half the county. What says he
Why, he was poor himself-the scoundrel-
nobody knew how poor, and had been forced
to make rule to give nothing to beggars
ay, he called me beggar! | might 60 TO the
Union, he said the workhouse Q, the prec-
ious rascal The son of my fathers brother,
brought up in my fathers house-worth a
hundred Thousand pounds, and would have sent
me TO the workhouse-me, his only living klns-
man. o, this world, this world Then
for was resolved to try them all sought
out nv old school-fellow, Nicholas Hume, the
spendthrift, whom bailed in my Young days,
when little richer than himself, and saved from
prison by paying his debts. What was his
gratitude! Why, he forsooih, had never
heard nv name Michael Norris! Who was
Michael Norris! o, they knew me well
enough twenty years ago, when | returned
from the West Indies a rich man, husband of
a wealthy Creole, master of fiourishing planta-
4ions, to visit my early haunts, help my poor
relations, to visit my early haunts, help my
Door relations--I found them all in distress,
some way or other-and shook hands with my
old friends Nobody had forgotten me then.
But now that come back a ragged cripple,
houseless and friendless",' and the old man
paused, and lifted his wretcheC hat from his
thin grey hairs, and passed his taitered hand
kerchief over his furrowed brow, with an air
which proved that he was as much oppressed
by mental suffering, by indignation and disap-
Pointment, as by the sultry heat OF an August
noon.
There are none left now,' thought old
Michael to himself as, exhausted by his yehe-
mence, he sank into a milder mood none
left for me to apply to now. except the orphan
children of my poor nephew, William Leslie,
the cousins of these hard hearted Collinses.
and their mother and they, fear, are them
selves in great want, and great trouble. He
lately died, after series of undeserved mis-
fortunes, and long and wasting illness and
she, working as hard as ever woman did work
to keep herself and family out Of the work
house-that Union to whose comforts my