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Untitled Article
And now the streets and roads are peopled with a new swarm —those who have dined early at home that they may have a long afternoon abroad . Fathers , mothers , and their children , orranclfathers and grandmothers , the toddling and the totterin g —all are on the move for the outskirts of the town—all panting
to enjoy again their seventh day ' s sight of the green fields . Some few , who have no taste for such jauntings , linger about their homes ; and every post at the corner of every thoroughfare has its companion , who either leans over it in idle reverie , or against it with a sense of shoulder ease and indolence , and observes what is wagging in the world- Such coachmen , grooms , and footmen , as have nothing else to do , stand about
with their hands in indifferent pockets—the first which come to hand ;—the maids pop out for a few minutes at different doorsglance up and down—take in the milk—gossip with the milkman in his best , a smart man—go in—stir up the fire for tea—cannot settle—come to the door again , but observing that they are watched by the old maiden lady opposite , who has very strict notions of what the conduct of servants should be , and , besides ,
is intimate with master and mistress , they are compelled to return to the kitchen , and sit down once more to ' The Whole Duty of Man , ' ' The Village Dialogues , * ' The Dairyman ' s Daughter , ' or ' The Complete Letter-Writer /—that real blessing to maid-servants , who can copy , but cannot contrive a love-letter .
It is Betty ' s * Sunday out . ' Betty is a good girl ; and what ' s more , good-looking ; and moreover dresses well ; and further is well-shaped ; and eke respectable ; and , in addition , is beloved by every body , especially by the handsome butcher in her street , who is single , and in a moment when butchers are as tender as their meat , popped the question , whether she had any prejudice
against butchers ; and Betty , like the candid creature she is , mswered , that ' She had no prejudices against any one ; ' when Crump—for that ' s his name—taking heart , asked her ' If she would dislike being a butcher ' s wife ? '—and Betty , turning red , and then pale , and then red again , replied , * That she would as lief be a butcher ' s wife as a baker ' s , for that matter , vrith the
purvisor that she liked the butcher better than the baker : '—so that the thing is as good as settled that she is to be Mrs . Crump . And this is the reason why she looks so red , broiling , and fluttery to-day . She has a dozen friends to whom she must tell the important secret ; they live at all corners of the town , and miles apart : but she means to visit them all : —if she does , she will
niake a circuit which would tire a horse . I foresee that she will knock up at the second or third stage , untl be glad of a dish < -f tea , a happy shedding of tears with sorue female friend at the turn in her fortunes , and an omnibus back , that she may get home in good time , as missus is very particular about servants comin g homo early . Betty * * heart is full—too full ; ao / d so are
Untitled Article
A London Sunday . 569
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1834, page 569, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2636/page/39/
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