_To the Editor._
Dear sir,--I hand you the following authentic particulars which happened
in the pleasant village of S****n B****r, and gave rise to “dancing
round the harrow:” if worthy of being chronicled in the _Table Book_,
they are yours.
John Jones, not finding his lovesuit successful with his master’s
daughter, because her father, a farmer, rebuked him, took umbrage, threw
down his whip on the “harrow” in the field, left the team, and, _sans
cérémonie_, went to sea.
The farmer and his daughter Nancy were variously affected by this
circumstance.--“Comfortable letters” were hoped for, news was expected
from some corner of the world, but no tidings arrived as to the fate or
designs of honest John. Village gossips often talked of the poor lad.
The farmer himself, who was a good sort of man, began to relent; for
Nancy’s cheeks were not so rosy as formerly; she was dull at milking
time. Observers at church whispered,--“How altered Nancy R* appears!”
* * *
After a lapse of about six years appearances change favourably. John
returns from sea auspiciously--meets his Nancy with open arms--her
father finds him disposed to make her happy--John requests forgiveness,
and is pardoned--his steadiness and attachment are tried and
approved--and--suffice it to say--John and Nancy are married. He assists
her father in the duties of the farm as his years decline, while she
supplies the absence of her mother, buried in the family grave of the
church-yard of her native village. * * * *
As soon as the wedding took place, a “harrow” was brought on the
grass-plot in the fore-close, when the villagers invited danced round it
till daybreak. * * * *
This “dancing round the harrow” was kept on several anniversaries of the
wedding-day; a young family and the old projector’s decease occasioned
its discontinuance; but, on each of these occasions, John does not
forget to present, instead, a not less acceptable offering, a good
supper to his workfolks in remembrance of his advance in life.