Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. V, No. XXIX., October, 1852Various
Religion
Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. V, No. XXIX., October, 1852
Various
American literature -- Periodicals; Civilization -- Periodicals; Culture -- Periodicals
Judy answers with a nod of deepest meaning; and calls, as she scrapes
the butter on the loaf with every precaution against waste, and cuts
it into slices, "You Charley, where are you?" Timidly obedient to the
summons, a little girl in a rough apron and a large bonnet, with her
hands covered with soap and water, and a scrubbing brush in one of
them, appears, and courtesies.
"What work are you about now?" says Judy, making an ancient snap at
her, like a very sharp old beldame.
"I'm a cleaning the up-stairs back room, miss," replies Charley.
"Mind you do it thoroughly, and don't loiter. Shirking won't do for me.
Make haste! Go along!" cries Judy, with a stamp upon the ground. "You
girls are more trouble than you're worth, by half."
On this severe matron, as she returns to her task of scraping the
butter and cutting the bread, falls the shadow of her brother, looking
in at the window. For whom, knife and loaf in hand, she opens the
street door.
"Ay, ay, Bart!" says Grandfather Smallweed. "Here you are, hey?"
"Here I am," says Bart.
"Been along with your friend again, Bart?"
Small nods.
"Dining at his expense, Bart?"
Small nods again.
"That's right. Live at his expense as much as you can, and take warning
by his foolish example. That's the use of such a friend. The only use
you can put him to," says the venerable sage.
His grandson without receiving this good counsel as dutifully as he
might, honors it with all such acceptance as may lie in a slight wink
and a nod, and takes a chair at the tea-table. The four old faces then
hover over tea-cups, like a company of ghastly cherubim; Mrs. Smallweed
perpetually twitching her head and chattering at the trevets, and Mr.
Smallweed requiring to be repeatedly shaken up like a large black
draught.
"Yes, yes," says the good old gentleman, reverting to his lesson of
wisdom. "That's such advice as your father would have given you, Bart.
You never saw your father. More's the pity. He was my true son."
Whether it is intended to be conveyed that he was particularly pleasant
to look at, on that account, does not appear.
"He was my true son," repeats the old gentleman, folding his bread and
butter on his knee; "a good accountant, and died fifteen years ago."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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