usehold in which Harry Esmond
lived. What impression do you get of each person? What trouble did
Harry bring upon the family? What change occurred in his life and
now?

SUPPLEMENTARY READING

The Virginians--William Makepeace Thackeray.
The Sir Roger de Coverley Papers--Steele and Addison.

THE FAMILY HOLDS ITS HEAD UP

The story is an extract from Oliver Goldsmith's famous novel, _The
Vicar of Wakefield_. In this book Goldsmith describes the fortunes
of the family of Doctor Primrose, a Church of England clergyman of
the middle of the eighteenth century. The novel is considered a
most faithful picture of English country life in that period.

The home I had come to as [v]vicar was in a little neighborhood
consisting of farmers who tilled their own grounds and were equal
strangers to [v]opulence and poverty. As they had almost all the
conveniences of life within themselves, they seldom visited towns or
cities in search of [v]superfluity. Remote from the polite, they still
retained the [v]primeval simplicity of manners; and, frugal by habit,
they scarce knew that temperance was a virtue. They wrought with
cheerfulness on days of labor, but observed festivals as intervals of
idleness and pleasure. They kept up the Christmas carol, sent love-knots
on Valentine morning, ate pancakes on [v]Shrovetide, showed their wit on
the first of April, and religiously cracked nuts on [v]Michaelmas-eve.
Being apprised of our approach, the whole neighborhood came out to meet
their minister, dressed in their finest clothes and preceded by a
[v]pipe and [v]tabor: a feast, also, was provided for our reception, at
which we sat cheerfully down, and what the conversation wanted in wit
was made up in laughter.

Our little habitation was situated at the foot of a sloping hill,
sheltered with a beautiful underwood behind, and a prattling river
before; on one side a meadow, on the other a green. My farm consisted of
about twenty acres of excellent land. Nothing could exceed the neatness
of my little enclosures, the elms and hedgerows appearing with
inexpressible beauty. My house consisted of but one story, and was
covered with [v]thatch, which gave it an air of great snugness; the
walls on the inside were nicely whitewashed, and my daughters undertook
to adorn them with pictures of their own designing. Though the same room
served us for parlor and kitchen, that only made it the warmer