Ellis, the farmer,
rose, too, short as the nights were, an hour before day; for his god
was gain, and a prime article of his creed was to get as much work as
possible from every one around him. In the course of the day Ellis was
called upon by young Langton, and never perhaps in his life was the
farmer puzzled more than at the young man's proposal--his desire
to provide for the widow's family, a family that could do him no
pecuniary good, and his willingness to disburse money for that
purpose. The widow, too, was called upon, not only on that day, but
the next and the next.
It needs not that I should particularize the subsequent events of
Langton's and the boy's history--how the reformation of the profligate
might be dated to begin from that time--how he gradually sever'd the
guilty ties that had so long gall'd him--how he enjoy'd his own home
again--how the friendship of Charles and himself grew not slack with
time--and how, when in the course of seasons he became head of a
family of his own, he would shudder at the remembrance of his early
dangers and his escapes.
LINGAVE'S TEMPTATION
"Another day," utter'd the poet Lingave, as he awoke in the morning,
and turn'd him drowsily on his hard pallet, "another day comes out,
burthen'd with its weight of woes. Of what use is existence to me?
Crush'd down beneath the merciless heel of poverty, and no promise of
hope to cheer me on, what have I in prospect but a life neglected and
a death of misery?"
The youth paused; but receiving no answer to his questions, thought
proper to continue the peevish soliloquy.
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