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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Untitled Article
She did not believe that the lad would give over his evil ways if his father were ever so rich : he seemed to take to vice by nature * M . mildly reasoned against so hopeless a conviction , and urged that if the boy ' s bad habits were traced back to their origin , there might be hope of cure . The woman ' s back was turned towards him as he said this ; but there was something in her silence , and in the expression of her whole figure , which impressed him with the conviction that she was suffering anguish of mind , and that it probably arose from the truth of what her son had said about his first lesson in theft * Respecting her feelings , whether
of remorse or of any other nature , he paused . A new topic was presently supplied by the entrance of a child of much more promising appearance than any who were playing without . He was also the child of this woman , who gave her name as Harris . She said he was some comfort to them at present ; but she did not know how long it would last , for while Ned ' s example was before his eyes , she was afraid nothing would prevent his
turning out like both the others . Had she then another child ? Yes—the eldest , a girl , who , in the days of their extreme poverty , hired herself out as a porter in one of the markets . She had become more and more irregular in her earnings and in her return home , and had at length disappeared
altogether . Since then the family had changed their dwelling , which made her return to them more improbable than it would otherwise have been * Mrs . Harris had long opposed the removal ; but her husband had taken a disgust to the place in which they had suffered so much , and being a stem man , had little wish to see his daughter again ; and all that the unhappy mother could do was to leave word with the neighbours where the family might be found , and to go among them , from time to time , to ask whether the wanderer had returned , —and be disappointed .
Having no comfort to suggest respecting her , M . inquired what means were taken to prevent the corruption of the youngest boy . He was kept as much as possible from playing witK the children in the alley , and employed by his mother ' s side . This was all . " Do you not send him to school ?" " I never could part with him out of my sight , after what I had gone through with the other two . "
" You take him to some place of worship r " " I have no heart to go to any such place . We have never kept our Sundays since our troubles were at the worst . We left off going out then because we had not clothes to put on . " " But there is no such reason now . " * ' No , Sir ; but every thing is so changed since the time when we used to make Sunday our resting-day , that we try , I scarcely know how , to make it as much likte other days as we can . I have often wished we lived out of hearing of the church-bells . " Before M . could reply , Harris entered . He looked full at the unexpected
Untitled Article
The Early Sowing . 735
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1831, page 735, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2603/page/11/
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