90 KEEPING PIGS. [No. 



work should always be done before day-light ; for in 

 the day-light you cannot so nicely discover whether 

 the hair be sufficiently burnt off. The light of the 

 fire is weakened by that of the day. Besides, it makes 

 the boys get up very early for once at any rate, and 

 that is something ; for boys always like a bonfire. 



147. The inwards are next taken out, and if the 

 wife be not a slattern, here, in the mere offal, in the 

 mr>]< there is food, and delicate food too, (or 

 a larg -':imily for a week; and hog's puddings for 

 the children, and some for neighbours' children, who 

 come to play with them; for these things are by no 

 means to be overlooked, seeing that they tend to the 

 keeping alive of that affection in children for their 

 parents, which, later in life, will be found absolutely ne- 

 cessary to give effect to wholesome precept, especially 

 when opposed to the boisterous passions of youth. 



148. The butcher, the next day, cuts the hog up; 

 and then the house is filled with meat ! Souse, gris- 

 kins, blade-bones, thi^h-bones, spare-rib?, chines, 

 belly-pieces, cheeks, all coming into use one after the 

 other, and the last of the latter not before the end 

 of about four or five weeks. But about this time, it 

 is more than possible that the Methodist parson will 

 pay you a visit. It is remarked in America, that these 

 gentry are attracted by the squeaking of the pigs, as 

 the fox is by the cackling of the hen. This may be 

 called slander; but I will tell you what I did know 

 to happen. A good honest careful fellow had a spare- 

 rib, on which he intended to sup with his family after 

 a long and hard day's work at coppice-cutting. Home 

 he came at dark with his two little boys, each with 

 a nitch of wood that they had carried four miles, 

 cheered with the thought "of the repast that awaited 

 them. In he went, found his wife, the Methodist 

 parson, and a whole troon of the sisterhood, engaged 

 in prayer, and on the table lay scattered the clean- 

 polished bones of the spare-rib ! Can any reasonable 

 creature believe, that, to save the soul, God requires 

 us to give up the food necessary to sustain the body 1 

 Did Saint Paul preach this 1 He, who, while ne 



