ight of people, the Bible
to him; so I make the boy to read to me, which he did with the forced
tone that children do usually read, that was mighty pretty; and then I
did give him something, and went to the father, and talked with him. He
did content himself mightily in my liking his boy's reading, and did
bless God for him, the most like one of the old patriarchs that ever I
saw in my life, and it brought those thoughts of the old age of the world
in my mind for two or three days after. We took notice of his woollen
knit stockings of two colors mixed, and of his shoes shod with iron, both
at the toe and heels, and with great nails in the soles of his feet,
which was mighty pretty; and taking notice of them, 'Why,' says the poor
man, 'the downes, you see, are full of stones, and we are faine to shoe
ourselves thus; and these,' says he, 'will make the stones fly till they
ring before me.' I did give the poor man something, for which he was
mighty thankful, and I tried to cast stones with his home crooke. He
values his dog mightily, that would turn a sheep any way which he would
have him, when he goes to fold them; told me there was about eighteen
score sheep in his flock, and that he hath four shillings a week the year
round for keeping of them; and Mrs. Turner, in the common fields here,
did gather one of the prettiest nosegays that ever I saw in my life."

And so the story rambles on to the end of that day's pleasuring; with
cups of milk, and glow-worms, and people walking at sundown with their
wives and children, and all the way home Pepys still dreaming "of the old
age of the world" and the early innocence of man. This was how he walked
through life, his eyes and ears wide open, and his hand, you will
observe, not shut; and thus he observed the lives, the speech, and the
manners of his fellow-men, with prose fidelity of detail and yet a
lingering glamour of romance.

It was "two or three days after" that he extended this passage in the
pages of his Journal, and the style has thus the benefit of some
reflection. It is generally supposed that, as a writer, Pepys must rank
at the bottom of the scale of merit. But a style which is indefatigably
lively, telling, and picturesque through six large volumes of everyday
experience, which deals with the whole matter of a life, and yet is
rarely wearisome, which condescends to the most fastidious particulars,
and yet sweeps all away in the forthright current of the narrat