went on: "The number of public houses in many a
parish, brings on more hunger and rags than all the taxes in it,
heavy as they are. All the other evils put together hardly make up
the sum of that one. We are now making a fresh subscription for you.
This will be our rule of giving: We will not give to sots, gamblers,
and Sabbath-breakers. Those who do not set their young children to
work on week-days, and send them to school and church on Sundays,
deserve little favor. No man should keep a dog till he has more food
than his family wants. If he feeds them at home, they rob his
children; if he starves them, they rob his neighbors. We have heard
in a neighboring city, that some people carried back the
subscription loaves, because they were too coarse; but we hope
better things of you." Here Betty Plane begged, with all humility,
to put in a word. "Certainly," said the Doctor, "we will listen to
all modest complaints, and try to redress them." "You are pleased to
say, sir," said she, "that we might find much comfort from buying
coarse bits of beef. And so we might; but you do not know, sir, that
we could seldom get them, even when we had the money, and times were
so bad." "How so, Betty?" "Sir, when we go to Butcher Jobbins for a
bit of shin, or any other lean piece, his answer is, 'You can't have
it to-day. The cook at the great house has bespoke it for gravy, or
the Doctor's maid (begging your pardon, sir,) has just ordered it
for soup.' Now, if such kind gentlefolk were aware that this gravy
and soup not only consume a great deal of meat--which, to be sure,
those have a right to do who can pay for it--but that it takes away
those coarse pieces which the poor would buy, if they bought at all.
For, indeed, the rich have been very kind, and I don't know what we
should have done without them."

"I thank you for the hint, Betty," said the Doctor, "and I assure
you I will have no more gravy soup. My garden will supply me with
soups that are both wholesomer and better; and I will answer for my
lady at the great house, that she will do the same. I hope this will
become a general rule, and then we shall expect that butchers will
favor you in the prices of the coarse pieces, if _we_ who are rich,
buy nothing but the prime. In our gifts we shall prefer, as the
farmer has told you, those who keep steadily to their work. Such as
come to the vestry for a loaf, and do not come to church for the
sermon, we shall mark; and prefer those w