_The Transmigration of Master_ STEPHEN CHURL _into the Body of a little
Cur._
In the next apartment we entered, we saw a little snarling cur, who
immediately saluted us with a surly grin, and barked and yelped as if
he would have torn the house down. He was indeed very securely chained
to a small kennel; but my daughter Betsey happening to venture too near
him, he snapped at her and tore her apron. "Take care, miss, said Mr.
Wiseman, and keep out of his reach; for though he is but a cur, he is
very mischievous. His body is the contemptible residence of the soul of
the late Master _Churl_. Poor miserable youth! he was a wrangler from
his infancy; and his litigious temper gave him as just a title to the
name of _Churl_ as his birth. Even when he was a child in arms, he was
such a peevish and noisy little brat, that his mamma could not find a
woman who would undertake the trouble of nursing him; and as soon as he
was able to speak and run alone, he began to wrangle with his brothers
and sisters, upon the most trifling occasions, and seldom forgot to
support his argument by exerting his little hands and heels with the
most malicious activity; so that to mortify his pride, and give a check
to his ill nature, they bestowed upon him the disgraceful title of
young _Kick and Cuff_. Poor Stephen, however bid defiance to all their
ridicule, and was so far from being reclaimed by it, that his
turbulence increased in proportion to his strength and stature. He was
afterwards as quarrelsome at school as he had been at home; and in
every party at taw, or trap ball, or any other innocent diversion in
which he happened to be engaged, he was always remarkable for
disturbing the game by his frivolous disputes: Nay, when he was only a
looker on, he would betray his wrangling impertinent temper, by calling
out, such a one does not play fairly; such a one counts too many; and
such a one goes in before his turn. The usual reward he received for
his trouble was, a handsome drubbing, sometimes from his master, but
more frequently from his school fellows. He was equally notorious for
his great forwardness to give a challenge, upon the slightest
provocation, and very often from mere wantonness; and sometimes he
would very unfairly begin an engagement without giving any previous
notice, that he might make sure of the first blow. But his strength and
skill being unequal to his pretensions, the many mortifying defeats he
received, soon taught him the despicable cunning of assaulting none but
those, who, he believed, were either too weak to contend with him, or
too cowardly to stand in their own defence. The speedy consequence of
such a dirty conduct was, that the bigger boys despised and laughed at
him, and those who were less than himself, carefully shunned his
company; so that at last poor wrangling Stephen, for want of
play-fellows, had no other diversion left for him, but to take a
solitary ramble through the fields. His parents being informed of the
disagreeable situation into which he had brought himself, and what a
shy reception he met with from all the boys in the neighbourhood,
thought it adviseable, after giving him a strict caution to behave in a
more peaceable manner for the future, to remove him to a genteel
boarding school, at a distance from home. If he had thought proper to
follow their advice, and make a diligent use of the excellent
instructions he received from his new teachers, he might afterwards
have cut a shining figure in the world; but, as what is bred in the
bone, seldom gets out of the flesh, so it fared with _Stephen Churl_.
Though he was a little reserved at first, as being entirely among
strangers, a short acquaintance with them made him very familiar--the
affability and good nature with which they listened to every thing he
said, soon encouraged him to be pert; and from pertness he proceeded to
open rudeness and ill manners--until at last happening to be very
mildly reprimanded by one of the young gentlemen, whose tenderness he
misconstrued into cowardice, he commenced hostilities, as usual, by
giving him an unexpected blow on the face. But his antagonist being
possessed of as much spirit as politeness, returned the compliment in
an instant; and conducted the engagement on his side with such vigour
and activity, that our hero soon retired from the field of battle
heartily drubbed, to make his complaint to the master, who, after a
minute inquiry into all the circumstances of the fray, thought proper
to reward him for the unnecessary trouble he had given himself, with
the severest flogging he had ever received in his life time. Thus
mortified and disgraced, the unfortunate _Stephen_ resolved upon an
elopement; but, being ashamed to return to his parents, he rambled
through the fields and woods, and scrambled over hedges and ditches,
until at length having torn his clothes to rags, and being almost ready
to perish with hunger, he eagerly listed himself into a gang of
gypsies, and supped very heartily upon the remains of a roasted cat.
The intolerable hardships he suffered, and the coarse fare he was
obliged to put up with in this new situation, together with the
frequent bangs and thumps which he received from the younger part of
his strolling comrades, who were as quarrelsome and mischievous as
himself, but abundantly more robust, soon broke his heart; so that he
died in a barn, and was buried, like a beggar, at the expense of a
little country parish." While the Bramin was concluding the history of
Master _Churl_, my son _Jackey_, whose temper was rather too fiery,
looked very sheepish; which his sister _Betsey_ observing, and easily
guessing the cause of it, she desired him with a good natured smile,
when we were leaving the room, to think on poor _Stephen_, and be sure
to take warning.