At six o'clock on a fine morning in the beginning of September, Mrs.
Cecil, with her daughter Matilda, stepped into a post-chaise in order to
begin a journey towards London.
The house she had for some time inhabited stood in a distant and
romantic part of Wales, many miles from the public road, so that they
could advance but slowly, and often walked up steep hills, and over
craggy mountains, either from regard to their own safety, or because
they were tired of the carriage.
Matilda, after riding a whole day, wished she could perform the
remaining part of the journey on foot, and often urged her mamma (even
when the roughness of the road did not render it necessary) to get out
of the chaise, that she might run up a rising ground, look round her,
and pick up and examine a number of different things which caught her
eye and struck her fancy; and Mrs. Cecil, who walked but slowly, was
often left far behind, whilst her daughter made little excursions, and
amused herself by talking to the country people.
The second day after their departure from home, she told her mamma she
had, in one of her rambles into a narrow lane, seen a poor boy in great
danger of being beaten by a woman who appeared to be mistress of a small
cottage adjoining to that at the door of which he stood, and who
threatened to lay a stick (which she held in her hand) over his
shoulders, if ever he dared to touch her pears again. "But," said
Matilda, "the boy insisted that they were not her pears, but his
father's, and that he was in his father's garden when he picked them
from a bough which hung down almost into his mouth."
Mrs. Cecil observed, that it would indeed have been a hard case if the
boy had been punished by a neighbour for eating his father's pears; but
when Matilda farther informed her, that the woman said the tree grew in
_her_ garden, and that the bough with which he had made so free,
because it hung over the wall, was a part of it, she said that entirely
altered the case; and asked Matilda, whether, when her sister had lost
one of her gloves, and that it was found to have slid into _her_ drawer,
she thought that accident made it her property, or whether it still
belonged to her sister? or whether, if the little rose-tree, of which
she was so fond, should in another year extend its branches so much, as
to spread over a corner of her sister's garden, she imagined it would
give her a right to pluck all the roses which hung in her way, or
whether she should not look upon them as _her_ roses, as much as those
which were growing on the other parts of it? Matilda perceived she had
been wrong, and thanked her mamma for shewing her her error.
The travellers arrived towards evening at the foot of a steep craggy
hill, and in compassion to the poor horses, they determined to walk to
the top of it. On gaining the summit, they saw an extensive common lying
before them; and Matilda, who was accustomed to make observations, and
to reflect on every thing she saw, and who never lost an opportunity of
gaining information, asked her mamma if she did not think it a great
pity, that any part of the world should remain so barren and
uncultivated, and, as it appeared to her, so intirely useless; wishing,
at the same time, she had the power to change the whole common in an
instant into flourishing corn-fields and beautiful gardens.
Mrs. Cecil was just beginning to tell her daughter, that nothing was
made which could be said to be entirely useless, when the post-boy came
running up to inform her, that one of the wheels of the chaise was
broken to pieces, and he did not know what he should do to get it up the
hill.
"This is a sad accident indeed!" said Mrs. Cecil, "and I know not what
any of us are to do, for I do not see a single habitation near us."
"Bless you! my lady," answered the boy, "do but please to turn about,
and you will see plenty of habitations. I be no stranger here; and
though there be no gentlefolks live in the place, I will be answerable
for finding you a clean, neat cottage, with homely fare, but a hearty
welcome. The first you see, over there by the trees, belongs to my aunt:
do, Madam, please to walk up to it, whilst I go seek for two or three
men to help me up with the _chai_."
During this speech, Mrs. Cecil had turned her head, and was very
agreeably surprised at seeing, very near the spot where she stood, a
little cluster of neat cottages among some trees, which, on ascending
the hill, she had not perceived, having been equally struck, as Matilda
was, with the extent of the plain before them.
They proceeded, as the post-boy had desired them, to the first cottage,
where they found a woman busily employed in preparing her husband's
supper, whilst four pretty little children, with ruddy complexions and
smiling faces, were eating milk with wooden spoons out of a large bowl
which was placed in the midst of them.
The good woman received them very kindly, and offered them every thing
her cottage afforded, such as milk, whey, brown bread, eggs, and some
common but ripe and relishing fruit. Matilda expressed much wonder, that
she found the means of procuring even the necessaries of life on a
bleak, wild common; and was extremely surprised when the woman assured
her that the common, which she seemed to think so little of, was what
furnished them with the greater part of the comforts they enjoyed:
telling her also, that if it were more fertile, and were to be inclosed
and cultivated, it would be quite lost to them, because they were too
poor to be able to rent even the smallest portion of it. "As it is,"
added she, "all the cottagers on this little spot have a right to feed
their cattle, and to cut turf for their winter fire. Neither my cow nor
my goats cost me any thing; we have a little garden, which, between my
husband and myself, is kept in pretty good order, and produces as many
vegetables as we can make use of. I have plenty of poultry, which I
carry to market, and have milk to feed my pig; so that we have nothing
to wish for, but that God may preserve our health, and continue to us
the blessings we enjoy."
Matilda was astonished at this account, and made many observations to
her mamma on the pleasure of finding people happier than she expected,
which gave her the greatest satisfaction, as they were convincing proofs
of the goodness of her disposition: and she did not fail to observe to
her, that the mixture of fertile vallies, barren mountains, hills,
woods, and plains, with which the earth is diversified, each in various
ways, and at different seasons of the year, are productive of good to
the industrious.
Mrs. Cecil and Matilda were obliged to pass the night in the cottage:
the next morning the wheel of the chaise being repaired, and having
satisfied the good woman for the trouble they had given her, and made
some little presents to her children, they continued their journey; and
being but a short distance from a small village, through which lay the
high road to London, they arrived at that city without any accident, or
meeting with any thing farther, worthy of being related.