Year: 1870

| tuLS ludlltI vi SlOtul lulutso. IL
know we are obliged to plough wit
such cattle as we have found for us
but when l am set to work wit


some men, I'd as soon drive teal


of snails, or go out rabbit huntin,


with dead ferret. Why, you nigh


sooner get blood out of a gatepost


or juice out of cork, than worl


out of some of them; and yet the.


are always talking about their right


l wish they would give an eye t.


their own wrongs, and not lean OF


the plough-handles. Lazy lie-a-bed'


are not working men at all, any


more than pigs are bullocks, OF


thistles or apple trees. All are moi


hunters that wear red coats, and al


are not working men who call them
selves SO. Iwonder sometimes that


some of our employers keep SC


many cats who catch no mice. ]


would as soon drop my halfpence


down well as pay some people fol


pretending to work, who only fidget


you and make your flesh crawl to


see them all day creeping over a


cabbage leaf Live and let live, say


/, but don't include sluggards in
that license; for they who will not
work, neither let them eat.


Here, perhaps, is the proper place
to say that some of the higher
classes, as they are called, set a
shamefully bad example in this re-
spect; our great folks are some of
them quite as lazy as they are rich,
and often more so; the big dormice
sleep as long and as sound as the
little ones. Many parson buys or
hires sermon, so that he may save
himself the trouble of thinking. Is
not this abominable laziness? They
sneer at the Ranters; but there is
not a Ranter in the kingdom but
what would be ashamed to stand up
and read somebody else's sermon as
if it were his own. Many of our
squires have nothing to do but to
part their hair in the middle; and
many of the London grandees, Ia
dies and gentlemen both alike, as l
am told, have no better work than
killing time. Now, they say the
higher monkey climbs, the more
his tail is seen; and so the greater
these people are, the more their idle
ness is noticed, and the more they
ought to be ashamed of it. l don't
say they ought to plough, but l do
say that they ought to do something
for the state, besides being like the
caterpillars on the cabbage, eating
up the good things; or like the but
terfies, lowing themselves off, but
no honey. I cannot be an
cry with these people somehow, for
I pity them when l think of the stu
pid rules of fashion which they are
forced to mind, and the vanity in
which they weary out their days.
I'd sooner by half bend my back
double with hard work, than be a
ack-a-dany, with nothing to do but
to look in the glass and see in it a
fellow who never put single pota-
to into the nations pot, but took a
good many out. Let me drop on
,hese Surrey hills, worn out like my
masters old brown mare, sooner
Eat bread and cheese and never earn
t; better die an honorable death,
han live a good-for-nothing's life.
Better get into my coffin, than be
lead and alive, man whose life is a
blank.


However, it isnot much ease that
azy people get by all their schem-
ing, for they always take the most
oains in the end; they will not mend
he thatch, and so they have to
build new cottage; they will not
,ut the horse in the cart, and so
lave to drag it themselves. If they
we're wise, they would do their work
veil, so as to save doing it twice;
md tug hard while they are in har-
less, so as to get the work out of
he way. My advice is, if you don't
ike hard work. just pitch into it,
ettle it off, and have your turn at
est.


l wish all religious people would
axe this matter under their consid-
ration; for some professors are
lazy, and make sad work
or the tongues of the wicked. l
hink godly ploughman ought to
,e the best man in the field, and let
10 team beat him. When we are at
york, we ought to be at it, and not
top the plough to talk, even though
he talk may be about religion; for
hen We not only rob our employers
# our own time, but of the time of
he horses too. used to hear peo-
lie say, 'Never stop the plough to
atch mouse" and it's quite as
lily to stop for idle chat; besides,
he man who loiters when the mas
er is away, is an eyeserver, which,


take it, is the very opposite of
christian. If some of the members
t our meeting were a little more
pry with their arms and legs when
hey are at labor, and a little quieter
nth their tongues, they would say
nore for our religion than thew now