"I thank you for the hint Betty," said the Doctor," and I affure you I will have "no more gravy foup. My garden will "fupply me with foups that are both "wholefomer and better; and I will an

fwer for my lady at the great houfe, that "The will do the fame. I hope this will "become a general rule, and then we shall "expect that butchers will favour you in "the prices of the coarse pieces, if we who "are rich buy nothing but the prime. In "our gifts we fhall prefer, as the farmer has * told you, those who keep steadily to their "work. Such as come to the vestry for a "loaf, and do not come to church for the " fermon, we fhall mark; and prefer those "who come conftantly whether there are " any gifts or not. But there is one rule "from which we never will depart. Those "who have been feen aiding, or abetting

any riot, any attack on butchers, bakers, "wheat-mows, mills, or millers, we will "not relieve; but with the quiet, content

ed, hard-working man, I will fhare my

"laft

"laft morfel of bread. I fhall only add,

though it has pleafed God to fend us this "vifitation as a punishment, yet we may "convert this fhort trial into a lafting bleffing, if we all turn over a new leaf. Profperity had made most of us careless. "The thoughtless profufion of fome of the "rich could only be exceeded by the idle"nefs and bad management of fome of "the poor. Let us now at laft adopt that good old maxim, every one mend one. "And may God add his bleffing!"

The people now chearfully departed with their rice, refolving, as many of them as could get milk, to put one of Mrs. White's receipts in practice, and an excellent fupper they had.

THE

HISTORY

OF

HESTER WILMOT.

BEING THE SECOND PART OF THE

SUNDAY SCHOOL

HESTER WILMOT was born in the parish of Welton, of parents who maintained themselves by their labour; they were both of them ungodly, it is no wonder therefore they were unhappy. They lived badly together, and how could they do otherwise? for their tempers were very different, and

*See the preceding volume.

they

they had no religion to fmooth down this difference, or to teach them that they ought to bear with each others faults. Rebecca Wilmot was a proof that people may have fome right qualities, and yet be but bad characters, and utterly deftitute of religion. She was clean, notable, and industrious. Now I know fome folks fancy that the poor who have these qualities need have no other, but this is a fad mistake, as I am fure every page in the Bible would fhew; and it is a pity people do not confult it oftener. They direct their plowing and fowing by the information of the Almanack, why will they not confult the Bible for the direction of their hearts and lives? Rebecca was of a violent, ungovernable temper; and that very neatness which is in itfelf fo pleafing, in her became a fin, for her affection to her husband and children was quite loft in an over-anxious defire to have her house reckoned the niceft in the parifh. Rebecca was also a proof that a poor woman may be as vain as a rich one, for it was not fo much

much the comfort of neatnefs, as the praise of neatness, which the coveted. A spot on her hearth, or a bit of ruff on a brass candleftick, would throw her into a violent paffion. Now it is very right to keep the hearth clean and the candlestick bright, but it is very wrong fo to fet one's affections on a hearth, or a candlestick, as to make one's self unhappy if any trifling accident happens to them, and if Rebecca had been as careful to keep her heart without spot, or her life without blemish, as fhe was to keep her fire-irons free from either, fhe would have been held up in this hiftory, not as a warning, but a pattern, and in that cafe her nicety would have come in for a part of the praife. It was no fault in Rebecca, but a merit, that her oak table was fo bright you could almoft fee to put your cap on in it; but it was no merit but a fault, that when John, her husband, laid down his of beer upon it fo as to leave a mark, fhe would fly out into fo terrible a paffion that all the children were forced to run to corners;

cup

now