800 = 554 
Tlie Agricultural Labourer. 
Gradual dimi' 
nution of 
household. 
door, and either reading his Bible, or gathering from the ne 
papers, as well as his education will allow him, the news of 
neighbourhood . 
At the age of thirteen or fourteen (or even younger) his g 
procure situations as domestic servants, for which the dem; 
in England far exceeds the supply. He is thus early relie 
of all charges as regards them. His boys remain with 1 
somewhat longer, but at about seventeen or eighteen they ; 
leave the parent nest and seek their own livelihood. W. 
once his family has flown, being still in the prime of mici 
life, a period of comparative comfort ensues, and, beyond 
ordinary aches and pains of humanity, he has few cares 
trouble him. His health (unless for a touch of rheumatism 
generally excellent. The guardians are somewhat indulgen 
him as a steady fellow who has brought up a family and, so 
done his duty to his country ; and when old age creeps U] 
him it finds him still a hale and hearty man, and able, ever 
seventy summers, to earn a living equal to his few and sim 
wants. Frequent visits are now paid him by the clergyn 
of his parish, and the squire and his lady are not unmindfu 
the dispensation of those creature comforts which mitigate 
ills of old age. If he can possibly manage it, he now contri 
to put a trifle by for the decent performance of the last off 
connected with his earthly career ; but if this is impractica 
it does not give him much concern that the parish will 
called upon to pay a portion of these expenses. His wa 
have not been excessive, and if his old employers have o 
more to put their hands in their pockets on his account, i 
only a just fulfilment of his final dues, so, not without a toi 
of sardonic philosophy, he passes away. 
If this is not an entirely enviable lot, it is at least wholesomi 
its simplicity, and free from the many temptations of the la 
town. The opportunity for saving to any extent, howc 
offered by the larger wages of the artisan of the town does 
occur to him. The time for that passed with him when he c( 
mitted himself to the matrimonial state. The English laboi 
Celibacy very nearly always lacks the self-restraint of celibacy. At a v 
'° precocious age his thoughts begin to hover upon the subjec 
marriage, and he seldom allows more than three- or four-a 
twenty summers to pass over his head before he takes the stej 
matrimony. Such improvidence is often dearly paid for in ai 
life, but the idea that, come what may, " the land has got 
support him " is so deeply engrained in his nature, that j 
dential considerations such as influence other classes scan 
raise even a flutter in his breast. 
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