he nursing, which he manifestly looks upon as a sort of reward for his
labour. However distant from his cottage, his heart is always at that
home towards which he is carried, at night, by limbs that feel not their
weariness, being urged on by a heart anticipating the welcome of those
who attend him there. Those who have, as I so many hundreds of times
have, seen the labourers in the woodland parts of Hampshire and Sussex,
coming, at night-fall, towards their cottage-wickets, laden with fuel
for a day or two; whoever has seen three or four little creatures
looking out for the father's approach, running in to announce the glad
tidings, and then scampering out to meet him, clinging round his knees,
or hanging on his skirts; whoever has witnessed scenes like this, to
witness which has formed one of the greatest delights of my life, will
hesitate long before he prefer a life of ease to a life of labour;
before he prefer a communication with children intercepted by servants
and teachers to that communication which is here direct, and which
admits not of any division of affection.

252. Then comes _the Sunday_; and, amongst all those who keep no
servants, a great deal depends on the manner in which the father employs
_that day_. When there are two or three children, or even one child, the
first thing, after the breakfast (which is late on this day of rest), is
to wash and dress the child or children. Then, while the mother is
dressing the dinner, the father, being in his Sunday-clothes himself,
takes care of the child or children. When dinner is over, the mother
puts on her best; and then, all go to church, or, if that cannot be,
whether from distance or other cause, _all pass the afternoon together_.
This used to be the way of life amongst the labouring people; and from
this way of life arose the most able and most moral people that the
world ever saw, until grinding taxation took from them the means of
obtaining a sufficiency of food and of raiment; plunged the whole, good
and bad, into one indiscriminate mass, under the degrading and hateful
name of paupers.

253. The working man, in whatever line, and whether in town or country,
who spends his _day of rest_, or any part of it, except in case of
absolute necessity, away from his wife and children, is not worthy of
the name of _father_, and is seldom worthy of the trust of any employer.
Such absence argues a want of fatherly and of conjugal affection, which
want is generall