ost
had killed the wheat. Farmer Wilson said the rye would never come
up. Brown, the malster, insisted the barley was dead at the root.
Butcher Jobbins said beef would be a shilling a pound. All declared
there would not be a hop to brew with. The orchards were all
blighted; there would not be apples enough to make a pie; and as to
hay there would be none to be had for love or money. "I'll tell you
what," said Farmer White, "the season is dreadful; the crops
unpromising just now; but 'tis too early to judge. Don't let us make
things worse than they are. We ought to comfort the poor, and you
are driving them to despair. Don't you know how much God was
displeased with the murmurs of his chosen people? And yet, when they
were tired of manna he sent them quails; but all did not do. Nothing
satisfies grumblers. We have a promise on our side, that _there
shall be seed-time and harvest-time to the end_. Let us then hope
for a good day, but provide against an evil one. Let us rather
prevent the evil before it is come upon us, than sink under it when
it comes. Grumbling can not help us; activity can. Let us set about
planting potatoes in every nook and corner, in case the corn
_should_ fail, which, however, I don't believe will be the case. Let
us mend our management before we are driven to it by actual want.
And if we allow our honest laborers to plant a few potatoes for
their families in the headlands of our plowed fields, or other waste
bits of ground, it will do us no harm, and be a great help to them.
The way to lighten the load of any public calamity is not to murmur
at it but put a hand to lessen it."

The farmer had many temptations to send his corn at an extravagant
price to _a certain seaport town_, but as he knew that it was
intended to export it against law, he would not be tempted to
encourage unlawful gain; so he thrashed out a small mow at a time,
and sold it to the neighboring poor far below the market-price. He
served his own workmen first. This was the same to them as if he had
raised their wages, and even better, as it was a benefit of which
their families were sure to partake. If the poor in the next parish
were more distressed than his own, he sold them at the same rate.
For, said he, there is no distinction of parishes in heaven; and
though charity begins at home, yet it ought not to end there.

He had been used in good times now and then to catch a hare or a
partridge, as he was qualified; but he now res