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
“I don’t know how it is,” said Arthur, “but you always seem as glad to
see the things in my garden coming up, and doing well, as if they were
all your own. I am much happier since my father came to live here, and
since you and I have been allowed to work and to play together, than I
ever was before; for you must know, before we came to live here, I had a
cousin in the house with me, who used to plague me. He was not nearly so
good-natured as you are. He never took pleasure in looking at my garden,
or at anything that I did that was well done; and he never gave me a
share of anything that he had; and so I did not like him; how could I?
But, I believe that hating people makes us unhappy; for I know I never
was happy when I was quarrelling with him; and I am always happy with
you, Maurice. You know we never quarrel.”
It would be well for all the world if they could be convinced, like
Arthur, that to live in friendship is better than to quarrel. It would
be well for all the world if they followed Maurice’s maxim of “Forgive
and Forget,” when they receive, or when they imagine that they receive,
an injury.
Arthur’s father, Mr. Oakly, the nurseryman, was apt to take offence at
trifles; and when he thought that any of his neighbours disobliged him,
he was too proud to ask them to explain their conduct; therefore he was
often mistaken in his judgment of them. He thought that it showed
_spirit_, to remember and to resent an injury; and, therefore, though he
was not an ill-natured man, he was sometimes led, by this mistaken idea
of _spirit_, to do ill-natured things: “A warm friend and a bitter
enemy,” was one of his maxims, and he had many more enemies than friends.
He was not very rich, but he was proud; and his favourite proverb was,
“Better live in spite than in pity.”
When first he settled near Mr. Grant, the gardener, he felt inclined to
dislike him, because he was told that Mr. Grant was a Scotchman, and he
had a prejudice against Scotchmen; all of whom he believed to be cunning
and avaricious, because he had once been over-reached by a Scotch
peddler. Grant’s friendly manners in some degree conquered this
prepossession but still he secretly suspected that _this civility_, as he
said, “_was all show_, _and that he was not_, _nor could not_, _being a
Scotchman_, _be such a hearty friend as a true-born Englishman_.”
Grant had some remarkably fine raspberries. The fruit was so large, as
to be quite a curiosity. When it was in season, many strangers came from
the neighbouring town, which was a sea-bathing place, to look at these
raspberries, which obtained the name of Brobdingnag raspberries.
“How came you, pray, neighbour Grant, if a man may ask, by these
wonderful fine raspberries?” said Mr. Oakly, one evening, to the
gardener.
“That’s a secret,” replied Grant, with an arch smile.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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