rly sixty miles, I could not
hear of her safe arrival till the return of Master George, which could
not be till the following Monday; for he was a devout man, and had
imbibed his father's likings in his youth, which was a champion for
the late Man, and would rather have done a murder on a Thursday than
have travelled on the Sabbath-day. "Better break heads," he was used
to say, "than break the Sabbath." I did always find him--the father I
mean--a sour hand at a bargain; and when he was used to drive me hard
upon his tithes and agistments, I could fancy he took me for one of
the Amalekites, or one of the Egyptians, whom he thought it a
meritorious Christian deed to spoil. The Monday came at last, and
Master George Sprowles, before he rode to his own home, trotted his
horse up our church avenue, and delivered into my hands a packet of
writing carefully sealed with a seal, whereof the device was a
true-love knot. Great was my delight and great my anxiety to read what
was written therein, and all that evening I pored over the manuscript,
on which she had bestowed great pains, and crossed all the _t_'s
without missing one. But it is never an easy task to decipher a
woman's meaning, particularly when not addicted to penmanship; and
although my excellent wife had attended a penman's instructions, and
had acquired the reputation, in her native place, of being an
accomplished clerk, still, since her marriage, she had applied her
genius to the making of tarts and other confections, rather than to
the parts of scholarship, and it was difficult for me to make out the
significance of her epistle in its whole extent. Howbeit, it was a
wonderful effort of calligraphy, considering she had only had two days
wherein to compose and write it, and she had been so little used to
this manner of communication, and it consisted of three whole sides of
a large sheet of paper. She said therein that Mr Snowton was a father
unto her in his affection and urbanity, and that he highly approved
the motion for us to make provision of the meat that perishes, seeing
it is indispensable for young children and also for adults; and that
he had already bethought him of a way wherein he might be serviceable
to us--viz. in procuring for me certain youth of the upper kinds, to
be by me instructed in the learned tongues, and such other branches as
I had proficiency in; and, in addition thereto, he said, that
peradventure he might obtain a similar charge for my exc