Fors Clavigera (Volume 3 of 8): Letters to the workmen and labourers of Great BritainRuskin, John
General
Fors Clavigera (Volume 3 of 8): Letters to the workmen and labourers of Great Britain
Ruskin, John
Aesthetics; Conduct of life; Great Britain -- Social conditions -- 19th century; Social problems; Working class -- Great Britain
Yes, make it yourself: you will manage it, if you make up your mind,
went on the farmer. You can chip wood well enough, and the wood won't
cost you much--what I haven't, another peasant will have; and there
must be old iron about, plenty, in the lumber-room. I believe there's
even an old cart somewhere, which you can have to look at--or to use,
if you like. Winter will be here soon; set yourself to work, and by the
spring all will be done, and you won't have spent a threepenny piece,
[31] for you may pay the smith too, with brooms, or find a way of
doing without him--who knows?
Hansli began to open his eyes again. I make a cart,--but how ever
shall I,--I never made one. Gaby, answered the farmer, one must make
everything once the first time. Take courage, and it's half done. If
people took courage solidly, there are many now carrying the beggar's
wallet, who would have money up to their ears, and good metal,
too. Hansli was on the point of asking if the peasant had lost his
head. Nevertheless, he finished by biting at the notion; and entering
into it little by little, as a child into cold water. The peasant
came now and then to help him; and in spring the new cart was ready,
in such sort that on Easter Tuesday Hansli conducted it, [32] for
the first time, to Berne, and the following Saturday to Thun, also
for the first time. The joy and pride that this new cart gave him,
it is difficult to form anything like a notion of. If anybody had
proposed to give him the Easter ox for it, that they had promenaded
at Berne the evening before, and which weighed well its twenty-five
quintals, he wouldn't have heard of such a thing. It seemed to him
that everybody stopped as they passed, to look at his cart; and,
whenever he got a chance, he put himself to explain at length what
advantages that cart had over every other cart that had yet been seen
in the world. He asserted very gravely that it went of itself, except
only at the hills; where it was necessary to give it a touch of the
hand. [33] A cookmaid said to him that she would not have thought him
so clever; and that if ever she wanted a cart, she would give him her
custom. That cookmaid, always, afterwards, when she bought a fresh
supply of brooms, had a present of two little ones into the bargain,
to sweep into the corners of the hearth with; things which are very
convenient for maids who like to have everything clean even into the
corners; and who always wash their cheeks to behind their ears. It
is true that maids of this sort are thin-sprinkled enough. [34]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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