The Parent's Assistant; Or, Stories for Children

'Should you like to learn how to make such baskets as these?' said the gentleman, pointing to one of the Dunstable straw-baskets. 'Oh, very much!' said Paul. 'Very much!' said Anne. 'Then I should like to teach you how to make them,' said the basket-woman; 'for I'm sure of one thing, that you'd behave honestly to me.'

The gentleman put a guinea into the good-natured basket-woman's hand, and told her that he knew she could not afford to teach them her trade for nothing. 'I shall come through Dunstable again in a few months,' added he; 'and I hope to see that you and your scholars are going on well. If I find that they are, I will do something more for you.' 'But,' said Anne, 'we must tell all this to grandmother, and ask her about it; and I'm afraid – though I'm very happy – that it is getting very late, and that we should not stay here any longer.' 'It is a fine moonlight night,' said the basket-woman; 'and is not far. I'll walk with you, and see you safe home myself.'

The gentleman detained them a few minutes longer, till a messenger whom he had dispatched to purchase the much-wished-for blanket returned.

'Your grandmother will sleep well upon this good blanket, I hope,' said the gentleman, as he gave it into Paul's opened arms. 'It has been obtained for her by the honesty of her adopted children.'

THE END

notes

1

A hard-hearted man.

2

'The proper species of rush,' says White, in his Natural History of Selborne, 'seems to be the Juncus effusus, or common soft rush, which is to be found in moist pastures, by the sides of streams, and under hedges. These rushes are in best condition in the height of summer, but may be gathered so as to serve the purpose well quite on to autumn. The largest and longest are the best. Decayed labourers, women, and children make it their business to procure and prepare them. As soon as they are cut, they must be flung into water, and kept there; for otherwise they will dry and shrink, and the peel will not run. When these junci are thus far prepared, they must lie out on the grass to be bleached, and take the dew for some nights, and afterwards be dried in the sun. Some address is required in dipping these rushes in the scalding fat or grease; but this knack is also to be attained by practice. A pound of common grease may be procured for fourpence, and about six pounds of grease will dip a pound of rushes, and one pound of rushes may be bought for one shilling; so that a pound of rushes, medicated and ready for use, will cost three shillings.'

3

The author has seen a pair of shoes, such as here described, made in a few hours.

4

Goody is not a word used in Ireland. Collyogh is the Irish appellation of an old woman; but as Collyogh might sound strangely to English ears, we have translated it by the word Goody.

5

What are in Ireland called moats, are, in England, called Danish mounds, or barrows.

6

Near Kells, in Ireland, there is a round tower, which was in imminent danger of being pulled down by an old woman's rooting at its foundation, in hopes of finding treasure.

7

This is a true anecdote.

8

Salt, the cant name given by the Eton lads to the money collected at Montem.

9

Young noblemen at Oxford wear yellow tufts at the tops of their caps. Hence their flatterers are said to be dead-shots at yellow-hammers.

10

From beginning to end.

11

This is the name of a country dance.

12

It is necessary to observe that this experiment has never been actually tried upon raspberry-plants.

13

Vide Priestley's History of Vision, chapter on coloured shadows.

14

Lobe.

15

This atrocious practice is now happily superseded by the use of sweeping machines.

16

This custom of 'Barring Out' was very general (especially in the northern parts of England) during the 17th and 18th centuries, and it has been fully described by Brand and other antiquarian writers.

Dr. Johnson mentions that Addison, while under the tuition of Mr. Shaw, master of the Lichfield Grammar School, led, and successfully conducted, 'a plan for barring out his master. A disorderly privilege,' says the doctor, 'which, in his time, prevailed in the principal seminaries of education.'

In the Gentleman's Magazine of 1828, Dr. P. A. Nuttall, under the signature of P. A. N., has given a spirited sketch of a 'Barring Out' at the Ormskirk Grammar School, which has since been republished at length (though without acknowledgment) by Sir Henry Ellis, in Bonn's recent edition of Brand's Popular Antiquities. This operation took place early in the present century, and is interesting from its being, perhaps, the last attempt on record, and also from the circumstance of the writer himself having been one of the juvenile leaders in the daring adventure, 'quorum pars magna fuit.' – Ed.

17

Lucifer matches were then unknown. – Ed.

18

Varieties of Literature, vol. i. p. 299.

19

Chi compra ha bisogna di cent' occhi; chi vende n' ha assai di uno.

20

E meglio esser fortunato che savio.

21

Butta una sardella per pigliar un luccio.