January 8. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
231 
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another place, as the plan above detailed only fractures 
a part of those rootlets near the surface, without the 
others being in the least hurt by the operation. Now, 
we suppose some one will be ashing what direction is 
the best to lay them; and much difference of opinion 
exists on that point, but, after trying them all, we have 
come to the conclusion that the ivest is the best. Some 
one will be saying north, but we have so often seen 
the plants struggle so much to regain their former 
position, when subjected to that unnatural persecution, 
and in so doing have erected their heads so as again to 
be liable to the injury they were prostrated to avoid, 
that we have determined on a we6t aspect being prefer¬ 
able. Take advantage of mild weather, and rat all that 
are ready; and all good heads nearly ready ought to be 
slightly protected, for which a handful of clean straw is 
a useful tiling. Examine all tender crops, and see that 
no destruction takes place. Dry wooil-ashes, or even 
coal-ashes, sprinkled amongst such crops as late-sown 
Caulifloivers, Lettuces, young Carrots, &c., will materially 
prevent that “ damping off,” so common at this unto¬ 
ward season. See to Sea-kale that has been forced on 
the ground, and allow a sufficient covering over it to 
prevent frost ever reaching it for some time. Give a 
look to the Broad Beans we recommended to be sown 
thickly under a hand-glass, and if they be coming up, 
and show signs of damping-off“, or getting what gardeners 
term “ black in the eye,” let some dry wood-ashes be 
dredged amongst them. Examine all stores, and expe¬ 
dite all work that can now be done. A much busier 
time is coming, which (with more or less of those draw¬ 
backs the weather and other circumstances always place 
in our way) will give us full employment, without our 
putting off' any of those needful operations that might 
as well be done now. J. Robson. 
THINGS MIGHT BE BETTER. 
By the Authoress of “ My Flowers ,” &c. 
We all know and feel that at the present time there is a 
heavy and general pressure upon ail classes of the people. 
We cannot shut our eyes, or stiffe our convictions ; facts are 
stubborn things, and whether we think it arises from this 
or that cause, whether we agree or differ as to the reasons 
for it, still we all admit that so it is. 
Nevertheless, I believe that things might be better than 
they are, with a great many people, even under the present 
disadvantages of our suffering country. It is not always “ the 
limes ” that ruin men, or increase their misfortunes. There 
is a “ cause ” that too often withers their gourds, lying much 
deeper than the surface of events—buried very deep in their 
hearts ; so deep that no eye but that of Him who inhabiteth 
eternity can see it and search it out. It is this “ worm ” 
that brings trouble, affliction, and ruin, upon every fair- 
seeming man. It is very, very often sin, and not circum¬ 
stances, that causes our difficulties. 
Thomas B- is a plumber and glazier, a very quick, 
intelligent man, but he has always had an off-hand, half- 
saucy manner, which people did not like, although there 
was nothing that any one could exactly take offence at. He 
was foreman to the widow of a man of the same business, 
married her daughter, and carried on the concern ; but he 
never prospered. He was not a man given to drink, or to 
any apparent vice; but he never prospered. 
At length he could get on no farther; and instead of 
honestly giving up all lie had to his creditors, he got away 
privately, and took all he had left with him. In an obscure 
part of London, quite out of the way of his distant country 
acquaintance, Thomas B - set himself up again, but to 
no purpose. A blessing did not go with his efforts; what 
his habits were no one in the country knew; but he strug¬ 
gled on year after year with an increasing family, and his 
wife came to see her mother in a white gown and a necklace; 
and very little was thought about them. 
Suddenly it was. announced that Thomas B - was 
coming down to settle at N-, some distance from the 
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town he had formerly left so disreputably. Years had 
passed; some of his creditors were dead, others had given 
up their expectations, or were gone from the place; at any 
rate, B- came back into his old county, and no one 
interfered with him. 
Had he been a strictly conscientious man he might have 
done very well. He soon got into work, and was employed 
by some of the first families in the neighbourhood. All 
seemed going on favourably; he setup a little cart, and had 
as much to do as he could possibly desire. In the course of 
three or four years work began to decline ; the families for 
whom he had once painted employed him no more. He 
said they had all behaved very ill to him. They said, what 
was perfectly true, that his outside painting all washed off 
with the first rains ; and that he and his sons were so off¬ 
hand and insolent, that they could not employ them any 
more. This happened in the case of five resident families, 
to our own knowledge, and no doubt in that of very many 
customers of less distinction, for all his employment fell 
away, and his family were reduced to very great destitution. 
As a last resource, and that which is, alas! considered 
most likely to succeed, B- took to keep a beer-house. 
Those who took an interest in his wife and children spoke 
strongly against this step, as one of sin and danger both to 
body and soul; hut he was in a fearful situation, between 
two evils, and he clave to the beer-house, as it promised to 
save him from immediate starvation. 
Solomon has said, in the wisdom of inspiration —“ He 
that maketh haste to be rich, shall not be innocent." We 
see it before our eyes, on every hand. Among the high and 
the low; among the educated and the ignorant; where 
“ haste ” is made, there dwells guilt, and punishment will 
surely follow. Thomas B- made “haste” to save his 
family from ruin, and set up a beer-house. The very next 
thing that we heard of him was, that he had sold up every¬ 
thing, and gone off to America. He had found even the 
beer-house fail—no blessing was in it, and it could not long 
prop him up. He and his family went away into a distant 
and strange land, without seeing their relations and oldest 
friends, or taking leave of them, even by letter. When 
people are not satisfied about their own conduct, it makes 
them shrink from those who know most of them; they can 
face new friends sometimes, when they cannot stand com¬ 
fortably in the presence of old ones; and we suppose it was 
this that led Thomas B-and his wife to go away for 
ever, without seeing their oldest and most intimate friends. 
On reaching America, they got on very well at first. B- 
and his sons obtained work, and found provisions cheap. 
But the last letter that came from Mrs. B- to a friend, 
announced a severe calamity. They had been but three or 
four months settled upon the strange soil to which they 
had fled for support, when a fire broke out in the wooden 
house they occupied. In three-quarters■of-an-hour it was 
levelled with the ground, and nothing was left but the 
family standing out in the street in their sleeping-dresses. 
Not one article, no, not even a chair was spared, and they 
found themselves in one short hour stripped of every pos¬ 
session, and standing upon foreign soil, half-naked, and 
wholly destitute! Surely “Wisdom crieth without: she 
uttereth her voice in the streets.” 
The kindness shown to the poor emigrants by their new 
acquaintance was deserving of high praise and thankfulness. 
They clothed and fed them, and gave them money and fur¬ 
niture to supply their wants; for even in judgment the 
Lord “ remembereth mercy,” and when he chastens, he 
healeth very tenderly. Still, a lesson has been loudly taught 
them. Let us “ hear and understand.” It is not this thing, 
nor that place, that can do us either good or harm. We fly 
from the fear of God; this it is that causes our downfall. 
Did not Jonah find it so ? We fly in the face of God ; this 
causes our ruin. Did not the Egyptians find it so ? Let us 
look with a steady, unwavering confidence, in all our ways, 
to God. He has said, “Wait on the Lord, and keep His 
way, and He shall exalt thee to inherit the land.” This is 
the one grand secret of prosperity, both in nations and in in¬ 
dividuals; nothing else can uphold us. It is not the road we 
journey along that overthrows us. The Israelites travelled 
quietly and safely over the rocks and sands of the bed of the 
Red Sea. Let us remember it is the Lord who takes off' our 
chariot wheels, and causes them to drive heavily; and when 
