THE FARM.
"Now you have told me all about the factories," said Willy, "I wish you would tell me something about your farm."
"Oh! that is quite another sort of thing," replied Johnny; "it's all out-of-doors work at a farm."
"And what sort of work do you do?"
"I cannot do much, because I am only ten years old, and am not strong enough, for the work is much harder there than here."
"Not always," observed Betsey. "I am sure hay-making is more like play than work, it's such good fun to rake up the hay, and then to have a roll on the haycock, and sometimes we get a drive in the cart when the hay is carrying."
"Yes," said Johnny; "but reaping, and ploughing, and digging are not so easy. However, hard or easy, I have not much time for work, for I go to school."
"And so do I," interrupted Betsey.
"Then," continued Johnny, "when we are at home we must help to take care of poor blind mother; but I help a little in the stables too, for I like to be looking after the horses and cows, and when I am older, father says I shall go to plough."
"And I help too," cried Betsey. "I don't run after the cows as Johnny does, but when he has brought them in I help Martha to milk them; that is, I carry her milking stool, and bring in a jug of milk for breakfast. Then I help her as much as I can to set all to rights in the dairy; but what I like best of all is, to take the new-laid eggs so nice and warm from under the hen that is sitting."
"Ah, ah!" cried Willy, laughing, "you see after all that you are fond of robbing a bird's nest."
"Nay," said Betsey, "that is not a bird's nest; it is not made by the hens, at least, for it is Martha who makes it, and then the hens were hatched from our eggs; so you see that hens, and eggs, and nests, and all, belong to us; and pray how can you rob what belongs to you?"
"But then," replied Willy, "is it not very hard upon the poor hen, to take away her eggs just when she is sitting upon them to hatch them?"
"No," replied Betsey, "for we never take away all her eggs, we leave her one, and that quite satisfies her; and when Martha wants to raise a brood of chickens she leaves her all the eggs she lays, and puts others under her besides; so you see we feed the hens and make them nice warm nests; and they lay eggs for us; so it's tit for tat."
Betsey had the best of the argument, and Willy gave up the point.
"I should like," said he, "to work in a farm much better than in a factory, where you are staying all day in a room fastening broken threads."
"So do I," replied Johnny, "it is much pleasanter to be running about out of doors after cattle, than to be shut up in the factory,—except perhaps in winter, when you often get wet through. That is why my uncle went to the factory; he got an ague by working out of doors in the rain, and was so bad he lost all his strength, and could hardly lift a spade. So, when he was better, he said he would go to the factory, where they do not work so hard, and are always under cover. When folks are not strong, a factory suits them best. Then every body could not find work at a farm, so some must go to the factory, whether they like it or not."
"But what sort of work is done in a farm?" inquired Willy.
"We grow corn to make bread, and breed cattle for meat."
"Then you make bread and meat for poor people's dinners," said Willy. "I am sure that is very good of you."
"Oh! but father don't give it away," said Johnny, "he could not afford that; he helps the poor people as much as he can, and pays them wages for their work; but his corn he sells to the baker, who makes it into bread; and his cattle to the butcher, who makes it into meat; and they sell it both to rich and poor, they care not which, so that they do but get paid for it."
"But the poor have no money to pay with," observed Willy.
"Then they must work to earn money; and that they may do either in a farm or a factory. Why, in a factory, as I told you, even little children get paid for their work."
"But what does your father do with all the money he gets for the corn and cattle he sells to the baker and the butcher? for he don't want to buy meat, nor bread, nor fowls, nor eggs, nor milk; for he gets all those things from his farm."
"Yes, we get plenty to eat and to drink too from the farm," answered Johnny, "for we make cider from our apples, and we brew beer from our barley. But we want a great many other things besides food. We must have clothes to keep us warm; and the factory people provide us with clothes as we provide them with food."
"But," said Willy, "they do not make clothes at the factory, they only make thread."
"Ay," replied Johnny, "but there are a great many other factories where they make things for clothes, such as silk, and linen, and cotton, and woollen cloth."
"Then," added Willy, "the thread they make at Milford serves the tailors and mantua makers, who make up the clothes, to sew them with. Well, how nicely that is contrived! people all help one another; it is tit for tat, like Betsey and her hens."
The children now returned to their parents, whom they found sitting on a bench.
Willy then made his request, and was much pleased to hear his mother say that they intended seeing the factory the next day; "but," added she, "we did not mean to take you with us; we thought you were too young to understand it, and that you would like better to stay with your friend Anna, and help her to gather fruit."
Willy thought that gathering fruit with Anna was a very nice thing too, but Johnny had raised his curiosity to see the factory so much, that he answered, "Oh no, pray let me go with you, for though I don't understand a factory much now, I dare say I shall when I see it; Johnny and Betsey have told me all about it; I shall know the great wheel, and the spindles, and what the children are doing when they fasten the broken threads together."
His parents, finding he had learnt so much already, promised he should go with them.
"And pray, Papa, let us go to the factory at Milford, where Johnny's uncle works;" and he was much pleased when he heard that was the factory they intended seeing, as it belonged to Mr. Joseph Strutt.
It was now time for them to return to the inn; so they took leave of the blind woman and her family.
"I am afraid you will soon forget me," said Willy sorrowfully; "I wish I had something to give you for a keepsake to make you remember me;" and he felt in his pockets, and found a teetotum and a few marbles, besides the ball, which he did not like to part with, his Papa having just given it to him; so he gave the teetotum to Betsey and the marbles to Johnny, and they promised to keep them for his sake. Willy was very sorry to part with his young friends, and the old ones too, for he liked them all: Granny, because she took such good care of her blind daughter, and looked so cheerful and good tempered; and the blind woman, because he pitied her; and Martha, because she was his first friend; and Johnny and Betsey, because they had all been so happy together;—so, for one reason or other, he liked them all.