18 



CHRISTMAS NUMBER AND ALMANAC 



If the damsels ilitl bask themselves out fii' hraw, there was 

 also extra scrubbing, and brushing, and decking among the 

 garden lads, to appear to the best advantage. My reminis- 

 cences of the evening, with one exception, chiefly concentrate 

 in the reply of the old coachman at the head of the table, 

 when a very dandified footman proposed a game of cards. 

 "Aye, aye," said he; "time enough, lad, when we get short 

 of better matter." The passing all round the table of little 

 wheeled waggonettes, filled with horns of ale .and glasses of 

 punch, that each might help himself or herself as was judged 

 proper, there being no compulsion ; and, amid the lulls be- 

 tween song, toast, and sentiment, a trial of strength in 

 badinage between myself and my right-hand neighbour, a 

 bright-eyed lass from the kitchen. 



There was a sort of law that the garden men were to have 

 nothing to say to the young women of the house ; but, in 

 a quiet way, there was a good deal of gossip sometimes out 

 of doors in an evening ; and such innocent badinage did 

 good to us of the bothy monastery, by softening our manners, 

 and sliarpening our wits. I have no doubt the upper servants 

 knew of this, and would not see it, .and I think they had good 

 reasons. Tliey knew perfectly well that not one of us would 

 go to the hall without being invited ; I believe that was the only 

 time I had been in the house. Tliey knew also that for more 

 than a qu.arterof a century such friendly intercourse had never 

 resulted in anything unpleasant. I must, however, add, for 

 the benefit of young girls who might think earneslhj about a 

 young gardener, that for the same twenty-five years or more, 

 according to the old women at the garden, among the many 

 men who had lived there, only one returned to many his old 

 sweetheart. 



There was that night just one trifling exception to the full 

 measure of enjoyment, and that I will mention. Among the 

 garden men was one older than the rest, and then settled in 

 the neighbourhood, who, in addition to a good knowledge of 

 music, could sing most beautifully. As usual, he obliged us 

 several times in the hall that evening ; but also, as usual, after 

 supper in the housekeeper's room, he was sent for to amuse 

 and please tlie jiarty there, and then returned to us. Some 

 of tlie least intelligent envied him for the preference shown ; 

 others i)iticd him. Ho told me himself how much he felt 

 degraded in his own sclf-resi)ect by being asked to go into 

 higher society merely to amuse and please ; but then he 

 added, "I am not in a position to refuse. I sang to them, 

 'A man's a man for a' that,' but the words seemed as they 

 would hang in my throat." It would have been better every 

 w.ay if tlie good folks in the parlour had stepped into the hall 

 to hear the music. Working men, as a rule, would neither 

 be gratified nor elevated if desired to dine even with a lord, 

 but a lord would do something to elevate them, and nothing 

 to lower himself, by going among them on festival occasions; 

 and even tnking the head of the table. In little matters of 

 this sort, when a mistake is made, it is generally the result 

 not of want of kindness, but merely the want of consider- 

 ation. 



Since then I have passed a good many Christmases, and 

 spent them in various ways, and mostly happily, becaose, 

 without any stolid stoicism, I had learned to lie so far inde- 

 pendent of extern.al circumstances. As an undcr-gardener, 

 I have been soaked with sleet and rain in turning over sea- 

 kale beds, to get a nice dish, when sea-kale was forced by 

 fermenting material out of doors. I have been nearly blinded 

 when shovelling and sweeping snow, to get a dish of spinach ; 

 iind lightening snow, and uncovering frames, to get asparagus, 

 lettuce and endive. I have ceased to feel my fingers in wash- 

 ing lots of celery with water close at freezing point. I have 

 stood up to the ankles in slush in the gutters of a mansion, to 

 prevent the melting snow getting into the ceilings. I have 

 searched for mistletoe on apple and lime, as if I believed 

 all the old tales connected with Druidical story. I have 

 scratched and torn my h.ands in collecting the best pieces of 

 holly, heaviest loaded with berries, with as much interest .as 

 if I really believed the poor stai-ved-out spirits of the woods 

 could shelter themselves in house and hall until better 

 days should come. And then — well, and then I have thought 

 I was treated something like the ivy, in the old ditty about 

 the Ivy and Holly : 



" Holly stood in the halle, fayro to behold ; 

 Ivy stood, without the dore : She ys full sore a-cold." 



and cold and wet I might have been for any, the smallest 

 recollection of my existence from high or low at the hall. 



Reasons there may be and arc, why, even on such festivals, 

 different depiirtments should be kept separate .and distinct as 

 at other times. Reasons there may be and are, why young 

 gardeners, who are to have little or no communication at 

 other times, should not be tantalised with a somewhat free 

 and easy intercourse with the house servants once a year. 

 But there can be no reasons why, in such a season of general 

 rejoicing, and which they help to promote, they should be 

 entirely passed over. With every heart-felt anxiety that my 

 younger brethren should have enough of independence of 

 character to rise far superior even to the seen and felt want 

 of such attentions, I do feel glad that many employers, who for 

 the reasons I have hinted at, do not bring gardeners within 

 the range of their domestic festivities ; yet do what is perhaps 

 more valued — give them a dinner or supper by themselves, 

 or order a trifle in money to be given, that they may have 

 something out of the common way for the great festival. 

 Young men of independence of feeling, who would sooner 

 live on bread and water, and potatoes and point, than accept 

 anything in the way of a charitable boon, would yet receive 

 gratefully, at this season, any such small mark of attentive 

 kindness as I have alluded to, and feel, in consequence, more 

 encouraged to a thorough prosecution of their duties. 



Finally, as I believe that happiness, to be worthy of the 

 name, must be bound up with the happiness of others : so 

 do I believe, other things being equal, that the greatest 

 possible happiness, is that which is identified with the 

 hai)piness of the greatest possible number. In the ob- 

 taining and the diffusing of such happiness, all classes 

 may successfully work as in a fertile field, from the 

 noble peer in his p.alace, to the humble labourer in his 

 cottage. Good words, kind actions, true sympathy, thankful 

 hearts, are mostly within the reach of all, who, having the 

 will, will find the way ; and these will never lose their double 

 power — power to bless the possessor and the imparter ; power 

 to benefit the receiver. If those exalted in rank and rich 

 in wealth, with all their attend.ant anxieties and cares, are 

 to be envied at all, it is chiefly on ivccount of the greater 

 ability ])ossessed for carrying bright sunshine into many a 

 gloomy home, and thus realising, 



" A brother to relieve, how exquisite the bli£s," 

 and that 



" Tlie heart benevolent and kind 

 Tlie most resembles God " 



when engaged in lessening human ills, and in not merely 

 wishing, but making, for many, a joyous Christmas and a 

 happy ]Veiv Year, 



E. F. 



CHARLIE'S CROWN. 



Chap. I. 



" The blackbird there, when showers are gone, 

 Still pipes at eve his benison ; 

 And on the frosty vernal morn, 

 Tlic valley's cheerful sounds are borne. 

 'J'he ash puts on and drops its leaves, 

 AVhen the dislieveli'd autumn grieves : 

 Itut no rude change aiiQin shall come, 

 To reach them in their peaceful home." — Williams. 



9 AR away fi'om the manufacturing town near 

 ^ which I lived, in the quietest comer of a quiet 

 ^ country churchyard, where daisies and primroses 

 'M spring up unsoiled from the green turf, and the 

 H grey old church stands a sober witness of the 

 5p faith of our forefathers, we made " our graves." 

 4- The noise of the toil and traffic of the world 

 '/f cannot reach the spot ; the sounds of sin and 

 jS'.^**^'fe strife come in such faint echoes, that they do not 

 mar the deep serenity ; and the churchyard has about it an 

 air of such calm repose, that the voice instinctively takes a 

 softer tone, and the footfall a more gentle ])rcssure, as you 

 pass through the little wicket g.tte that divides " God's acre " 

 from man's. 



The boughs of a feathering larch spread themselves pro- 

 tectingly around, and wild flowers peep in between the little 



