_ Chapter XII - In which Mr. Booth concludes his story.
"The next day the doctor set out for his parsonage, which was about
thirty miles distant, whither Amelia and myself accompanied him, and
where we stayed with him all the time of his residence there, being
almost three months.
"The situation of the parish under my good friend's care is very
pleasant. It is placed among meadows, washed by a clear trout-stream,
and flanked on both sides with downs. His house, indeed, would not
much attract the admiration of the virtuoso. He built it himself, and
it is remarkable only for its plainness; with which the furniture so
well agrees, that there is no one thing in it that may not be
absolutely necessary, except books, and the prints of Mr. Hogarth,
whom he calls a moral satirist.
"Nothing, however, can be imagined more agreeable than the life that
the doctor leads in this homely house, which he calls his earthly
paradise. All his parishioners, whom he treats as his children, regard
him as their common father. Once in a week he constantly visits every
house in the parish, examines, commends, and rebukes, as he finds
occasion. This is practised likewise by his curate in his absence; and
so good an effect is produced by this their care, that no quarrels
ever proceed either to blows or law-suits; no beggar is to be found in
the whole parish; nor did I ever hear a very profane oath all the time
I lived in it. "But to return from so agreeable a digression, to my
own affairs, that are much less worth your attention. In the midst of
all the pleasures I tasted in this sweet place and in the most
delightful company, the woman and man whom I loved above all things,
melancholy reflexions concerning my unhappy circumstances would often
steal into my thoughts. My fortune was now reduced to less than forty
pounds a-year; I had already two children, and my dear Amelia was
again with child.
"One day the doctor found me sitting by myself, and employed in
melancholy contemplations on this subject. He told me he had observed
me growing of late very serious; that he knew the occasion, and
neither wondered at nor blamed me. He then asked me if I had any
prospect of going again into the army; if not, what scheme of life I
proposed to myself?
"I told him that, as I had no powerful friends, I could have but
little expectations in a military way; that I was as incapable of
thinking of any other scheme, as all business required some knowledge
or experience, and likewise money to set up with; of all which I was
destitute.
"'You must know then, child,' said the doctor, 'that I have been
thinking on this subject as well as you; for I can think, I promise
you, with a pleasant countenance.' These were his words. 'As to the
army, perhaps means might be found of getting you another commission;
but my daughter seems to have a violent objection to it; and to be
plain, I fancy you yourself will find no glory make you amends for
your absence from her. And for my part,' said he, 'I never think those
men wise who, for any worldly interest, forego the greatest happiness
of their lives. If I mistake not,' says he, 'a country life, where you
could be always together, would make you both much happier people.'
"I answered, that of all things I preferred it most; and I believed
Amelia was of the same opinion.
"The doctor, after a little hesitation, proposed to me to turn farmer,
and offered to let me his parsonage, which was then become vacant. He
said it was a farm which required but little stock, and that little
should not be wanting.
"I embraced this offer very eagerly, and with great thankfulness, and
immediately repaired to Amelia to communicate it to her, and to know
her sentiments.
"Amelia received the news with the highest transports of joy; she said
that her greatest fear had always been of my entring again into the
army. She was so kind as to say that all stations of life were equal
to her, unless as one afforded her more of my company than another.
'And as to our children,' said she, 'let us breed them up to an humble
fortune, and they will be contented with it; for none,' added my
angel, 'deserve happiness, or, indeed, are capable of it, who make any
particular station a necessary ingredient.'"
"Thus, madam, you see me degraded from my former rank in life; no
longer Captain Booth, but farmer Booth at your service.
"During my first year's continuance in this new scene of life,
nothing, I think, remarkable happened; the history of one day would,
indeed, be the history of the whole year."
"Well, pray then," said Miss Matthews, "do let us hear the history of
that day; I have a strange curiosity to know how you could kill your
time; and do, if possible, find out the very best day you can."
"If you command me, madam," answered Booth, "you must yourself be
accountable for the dulness of the narrative. Nay, I believe, you have
imposed a very difficult task on me; for the greatest happiness is
incapable of description.
"I rose then, madam--"
"O, the moment you waked, undoubtedly," said Miss Matthews.
"Usually," said he, "between five and six."
"I will have no usually," cried Miss Matthews, "you are confined to a
day, and it is to be the best and happiest in the year."
"Nay, madam," cries Booth, "then I must tell you the day in which
Amelia was brought to bed, after a painful and dangerous labour; for
that I think was the happiest day of my life."
"I protest," said she, "you are become farmer Booth, indeed. What a
happiness have you painted to my imagination! you put me in mind of a
newspaper, where my lady such-a-one is delivered of a son, to the
great joy of some illustrious family."
"Why then, I do assure you, Miss Matthews," cries Booth, "I scarce
know a circumstance that distinguished one day from another. The whole
was one continued series of love, health, and tranquillity. Our lives
resembled a calm sea."--
"The dullest of all ideas," cries the lady.
"I know," said he, "it must appear dull in description, for who can
describe the pleasures which the morning air gives to one in perfect
health; the flow of spirits which springs up from exercise; the
delights which parents feel from the prattle and innocent follies of
their children; the joy with which the tender smile of a wife inspires
a husband; or lastly, the chearful, solid comfort which a fond couple
enjoy in each other's conversation?--All these pleasures and every
other of which our situation was capable we tasted in the highest
degree. Our happiness was, perhaps, too great; for fortune seemed to
grow envious of it, and interposed one of the most cruel accidents
that could have befallen us by robbing us of our dear friend the
doctor."
"I am sorry for it," said Miss Matthews. "He was indeed a valuable
man, and I never heard of his death before."
"Long may it be before any one hears of it!" cries Booth. "He is,
indeed, dead to us; but will, I hope, enjoy many happy years of life.
You know, madam, the obligations he had to his patron the earl;
indeed, it was impossible to be once in his company without hearing of
them. I am sure you will neither wonder that he was chosen to attend
the young lord in his travels as his tutor, nor that the good man,
however disagreeable it might be (as in fact it was) to his
inclination, should comply with the earnest request of his friend and
patron.
"By this means I was bereft not only of the best companion in the
world, but of the best counsellor; a loss of which I have since felt
the bitter consequence; for no greater advantage, I am convinced, can
arrive to a young man, who hath any degree of understanding, than an
intimate converse with one of riper years, who is not only able to
advise, but who knows the manner of advising. By this means alone,
youth can enjoy the benefit of the experience of age, and that at a
time of life when such experience will be of more service to a man
than when he hath lived long enough to acquire it of himself.
"From want of my sage counsellor, I now fell into many errors. The
first of these was in enlarging my business, by adding a farm of one
hundred a year to the parsonage, in renting which I had also as bad a
bargain as the doctor had before given me a good one. The consequence
of which was, that whereas, at the end of the first year, I was worth
upwards of fourscore pounds; at the end of the second I was near half
that sum worse (as the phrase is) than nothing.
"A second folly I was guilty of in uniting families with the curate of
the parish, who had just married, as my wife and I thought, a very
good sort of a woman. We had not, however, lived one month together
before I plainly perceived this good sort of a woman had taken a great
prejudice against my Amelia, for which, if I had not known something
of the human passions, and that high place which envy holds among
them, I should not have been able to account, for, so far was my angel
from having given her any cause of dislike, that she had treated her
not only with civility, but kindness.
"Besides superiority in beauty, which, I believe, all the world would
have allowed to Amelia, there was another cause of this envy, which I
am almost ashamed to mention, as it may well be called my greatest
folly. You are to know then, madam, that from a boy I had been always
fond of driving a coach, in which I valued myself on having some
skill. This, perhaps, was an innocent, but I allow it to have been a
childish vanity. As I had an opportunity, therefore, of buying an old
coach and harness very cheap (indeed they cost me but twelve pounds),
and as I considered that the same horses which drew my waggons would
likewise draw my coach, I resolved on indulging myself in the
purchase.
"The consequence of setting up this poor old coach is inconceivable.
Before this, as my wife and myself had very little distinguished
ourselves from the other farmers and their wives, either in our dress
or our way of living, they treated us as their equals; but now they
began to consider us as elevating ourselves into a state of
superiority, and immediately began to envy, hate, and declare war
against us. The neighbouring little squires, too, were uneasy to see a
poor renter become their equal in a matter in which they placed so
much dignity; and, not doubting but it arose in me from the same
ostentation, they began to hate me likewise, and to turn my equipage
into ridicule, asserting that my horses, which were as well matched as
any in the kingdom, were of different colours and sizes, with much
more of that kind of wit, the only basis of which is lying.
"But what will appear most surprizing to you, madam, was, that the
curate's wife, who, being lame, had more use of the coach than my
Amelia (indeed she seldom went to church in any other manner), was one
of my bitterest enemies on the occasion. If she had ever any dispute
with Amelia, which all the sweetness of my poor girl could not
sometimes avoid, she was sure to introduce with a malicious sneer,
'Though my husband doth not keep a coach, madam.' Nay, she took this
opportunity to upbraid my wife with the loss of her fortune, alledging
that some folks might have had as good pretensions to a coach as other
folks, and a better too, as they brought a better fortune to their
husbands, but that all people had not the art of making brick without
straw.
"You will wonder, perhaps, madam, how I can remember such stuff,
which, indeed, was a long time only matter of amusement to both Amelia
and myself; but we at last experienced the mischievous nature of envy,
and that it tends rather to produce tragical than comical events. My
neighbours now began to conspire against me. They nicknamed me in
derision, the Squire Farmer. Whatever I bought, I was sure to buy
dearer, and when I sold I was obliged to sell cheaper, than any other.
In fact, they were all united, and, while they every day committed
trespasses on my lands with impunity, if any of my cattle escaped into
their fields, I was either forced to enter into a law-suit or to make
amends fourfold for the damage sustained.
"The consequences of all this could be no other than that ruin which
ensued. Without tiring you with particulars, before the end of four
years I became involved in debt near three hundred pounds more than
the value of all my effects. My landlord seized my stock for rent,
and, to avoid immediate confinement in prison, I was forced to leave
the country with all that I hold dear in the world, my wife and my
poor little family.
"In this condition I arrived in town five or six days ago. I had just
taken a lodging in the verge of the court, and had writ my dear Amelia
word where she might find me, when she had settled her affairs in the
best manner she could. That very evening, as I was returning home from
a coffee-house, a fray happening in the street, I endeavoured to
assist the injured party, when I was seized by the watch, and, after
being confined all night in the round-house, was conveyed in the
morning before a justice of peace, who committed me hither; where I
should probably have starved, had I not from your hands found a most
unaccountable preservation.--And here, give me leave to assure you, my
dear Miss Matthews, that, whatever advantage I may have reaped from
your misfortune, I sincerely lament it; nor would I have purchased any
relief to myself at the price of seeing you in this dreadful place."
He spake these last words with great tenderness; for he was a man of
consummate good nature, and had formerly had much affection for this
young lady; indeed, more than the generality of people are capable of
entertaining for any person whatsoever. _