(_For the Mirror_.)
Valuable as are feathers, and essential as is that article, a feather-bed,
to the domestic comforts of the poor, who can rarely afford to purchase
one, it has often struck us, as a singular want of thought and economy in
humble cottagers residing on village-greens or commons, upon which much
poultry is kept, that they should not collect, (a work easily performed by
the youngest children) the numerous soft, short, downy feathers, which may
be observed floating about. These in time would amount to a quantity worth
consideration, but they are usually left, first to litter the land, and
secondly to be destroyed by rain and passengers. This is particularly the
case in Norfolk, celebrated as everybody knows as well for its geese as
its turkeys, and where, it is asserted, that the former fowls undergo
regular pluckings for the sake of their feathers, ere submitted to "the
poulterer's knife." But experience, unfortunately, only confirms the old
observation, that "the poor are the worst economists in the world," and
the least obedient of any people to our Saviour's command: "Gather up the
fragments, that nothing be lost."