Brothers of Pity and Other Tales of Beasts and Men — John Shaqi
Brothers of Pity and Other Tales of Beasts and MenEwing, Juliana Horatia
General
Brothers of Pity and Other Tales of Beasts and Men
Ewing, Juliana Horatia
Animals -- Juvenile fiction
"I do, my dear. For home is not a house that never moves from one place,
built of stone or brick, and with a front door for the genteel and a
back door for the common people. If it was so, prisons would be homes.
But home, my daughter, is where persons is whom you belongs to, and it
may be under a hedge to-day and in a fair to-morrow."
"Mother," said Sybil, "what did you do about the ten pounds?"
"I will tell you, my daughter. I was obliged to wait longer than was
agreeable to me before proceeding to that neighbourhood, for the police
was searching everywhere, and it would be wearisome to relate to you
with what difficulty Christian was concealed. My plans had been long
made, as you know.
"Clergyfolk, my daughter, with a tediousness of jaw which makes them as
oppressive to listen long to as houses is to rest long in, has their
good points like other persons; they shows kindness to those who are in
trouble, and they spends their money very freely on the poor. This is
well known, even by those who has no liking for parsons, and I have more
than once observed that persons who goes straight to the public-house
when they has money in their pockets, goes straight to the parson when
their pockets is empty.
"It is also well known, my daughter, that when the clergyman collects
money after speaking in his church, he doesn't take it for his own use,
as is the custom with other people, such as Punch and Judy men, or
singers, or fortune tellers; at the same time he is as pleased with a
good collection as if it were for his own use; and if some rich person
contributes a sovereign for the sick and poor, it is to him as it would
be to you, my daughter, if your hand was crossed with gold by some noble
gentleman who had been crossed in love.
"I explain this, my dear, that you may understand how it was that I had
planned to pay back the clergy people's ten pounds in church, which
would be as good as paying it into their hands, with the advantage of
secrecy for myself. On the Saturday I drives into the little market in a
donkey-cart with greens, and on Sunday morning I goes to church in a
very respectable disguisement, and the sexton puts me in a pew with
some women of infirm mind in workhouse dresses, for which, my daughter,
I had much to do to restrain myself from knocking him down. But I does;
and I behaves myself through the service with the utmost care, following
the movements of the genteeler portion of the company, those in the pew
with me having no manners at all; one of them standing most of the time
and giggling over the pew-back, and another sitting in the corner and
weeping into her lap.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account