574 Village Sketches : [ Dec. 
loves best in the world, to abject destitution. He found help, where he 
probably least expected it, in the sense and spirit of his young daughter, 
a girl of twelve years old. 
Hannah was the eldest of the family, and had, ever since her mother’s 
death, which event had occurred two or three years before, been accus- 
tomed to take the direction of their domestic concerns, to manage her 
two brothers, to feed the pigs and the poultry, and to keep house during 
the almost constant absence of her father. She was a quick, clever lass, 
of a high spirit, a firm temper, some pride, and a horror of accepting 
parochial relief, which is every day becoming rarer amongst the pea- 
santry ; but which forms the surest safe-guard to the sturdy inde- 
pendence of the English character. Qur little damsel possessed this 
quality in perfection ; and when her father talked of giving up their 
comfortable cottage, and removing to the workhouse, whilst she and her 
brothers must go to service, Hannah formed a bold resolution, and, with- 
out disturbing the sick man by any participation of her hopes and fears, 
proceeded, after settling their trifling affairs, to act at once on her own 
plans and designs. 
Careless of the future as the poor drover had seemed, he had yet kept 
clear of debt, and by subscribing constantly to a benefit club, had secured 
a pittance that might at least assist in supporting him during the long 
years of sickness and _ helplessness to which he was doomed to look for- 
ward. This his daughter knew. She knew, also, that the employer in 
whose service his health had suffered so severely, was a rich and liberal 
cattle-dealer in the neighbourhood, who would willingly aid an old and 
faithful servant, and had, indeed, come forward with offers of money. 
To assistance from such a quarter Hannah no objection. Farmer Oakley 
and the parish were quite distinct things. Of him, accordingly, she 
asked, not money, but something much more in his own way—“ a cow ! 
any cow! old or lame, or what not, so that it were a cow! she would be 
bound to keep it well; if she did not, he might take it back again. She 
even hoped. to pay for it by and by, by instalments, but that she would 
not promise!” and partly amused, partly interested by the child’s earn- 
estness, the wealthy yeoman gave her, not as a purchase, but as a pre- 
sent, a very fine young Alderney. She then went to the lord of the 
manor, and, with equal knowledge of character, begged his permission 
to keep her cow in the Shaw common. “ Farmer Oakley had given 
her a fine Alderney, and she would be bound to pay the rent, and keep 
her father off the parish, if he would only let it graze on the waste ;” 
and he, too, half from real good nature—half, not to be outdone in libe- 
rality by his tenant, not only granted the requested permission, but 
reduced the rent so much, that the produce of the vine seldom fails to 
satisfy their kind landlord. 
_ Now, Hannah shewed great tact in setting up as a dairy-woman. She 
could not have chosen an occupation more completely unoccupied, or 
more loudly called for. One of the most provoking of the petty diffi- 
culties which beset people with a small establishment, in this neighbour- 
hood, is the trouble, almost the impossibility, of procuring the pastoral 
Juxuries of milk, eggs, and butter, which rank, unfortunately, amongst 
the indispensable necessaries of housekeeping. To your thorough-bred 
Londoner, who, whilst grumbling over his own breakfast, is apt to fancy 
that thick cream, and fresh butter, and new-laid eggs, grow, so to say, 
in the country—form an actual part of its natural produce—it may be 
