The Parent's Assistant; Or, Stories for ChildrenEdgeworth, Maria
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The Parent's Assistant; Or, Stories for Children
Edgeworth, Maria
Children's stories; Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction
Miss Somers looked at her brother from time to time, as she wrote; and
Sir Arthur, as soon as the old man had finished, took him aside, and
asked him some questions, which brought the whole history of Susan’s lamb
and of Attorney Case’s cruelty to light.
The attorney himself was present when the harper began to dictate his
ballad. His colour, as Sir Arthur steadily looked at him, varied
continually; till at length, when he heard the words “Susan’s Lamentation
for her Lamb,” he suddenly shrunk back, skulked through the crowd, and
disappeared. We shall not follow him; we had rather follow our old
friend, the victorious harper.
No sooner had he received the ten guineas, his well merited prize, than
he retired to a small room belonging to the people of the house, asked
for pen, ink and paper, and dictated, in a low voice, to his boy, who was
a tolerably good scribe, a letter, which he ordered him to put directly
into the Shrewsbury post-office. The boy ran with the letter to the
post-office. He was but just in time, for the postman’s horn was
sounding.
The next morning, when Farmer Price, his wife, and Susan, were sitting
together, reflecting that his week’s leave of absence was nearly at an
end, and that the money was not yet made up for John Simpson, the
substitute, a knock was heard at the door, and the person who usually
delivered the letters in the village put a letter into Susan’s hand,
saying, “A penny, if you please—here’s a letter for your father.”
“For me!” said Farmer Price; “here’s the penny then, but who can it be
from, I wonder? Who can think of writing to me, in this world?” He tore
open the letter; but the hard name at the bottom of the page puzzled
him—“your obliged friend, Llewellyn.”
“And what’s this?” said he, opening a paper that was inclosed in the
letter. “It’s a song, seemingly; it must be somebody that has a mind to
make an April fool of me.”
“But it is not April, it is May, father,” said Susan.
“Well, let us read the letter, and we shall come to the truth all in good
time.”
Farmer Price sat down in his own chair, for he could not read entirely to
his satisfaction in any other, and read as follows:—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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