nd bonfires, and to be made drunk at Christmas;
this Sir John called being kind to them; but he thought it was folly
to teach them, and madness to think of reforming them. He was,
however, always ready to give his guinea; but I question whether he
would have given up his hunting and his gaming to have cured every
grievance in the land. He had that sort of constitutional good
nature which, if he had lived much within sight of misery, would
have led him to be liberal; but he had that selfish love of ease,
which prompted him to give to undeserving objects, rather than be at
the pains to search out the deserving. He neither discriminated
between the degrees of distress, nor the characters of the
distressed. His idea of charity was, that a rich man should
occasionally give a little of his superfluous wealth to the first
object that occurred; but he had no conception that it was his duty
so to husband his wealth and limit his expenses, as to supply a
regular fund for established charity. And the utmost stretch of his
benevolence never led him to suspect that he was called to abridge
himself in the most idle article of indulgence, for a purpose
foreign to his own personal enjoyment. On the other hand, the squire
would assist Mrs. Jones in any of her plans if it cost him nothing;
so she showed her good sense by never asking Sir John for advice, or
the squire for subscriptions, and by this prudence gained the full
support of both.

Mrs. Jones resolved to spend two or three days in a week in getting
acquainted with the state of the parish, and she took care never to
walk out without a few little good books in her pocket to give away.
This, though a cheap, is a most important act of charity; it has its
various uses; it furnishes the poor with religious knowledge, which
they have so few ways of obtaining; it counteracts the wicked
designs of those who have taught us at least one lesson, by their
zeal in the dispersion of _wicked_ books--I mean the lesson of
vigilance and activity; and it is the best introduction for any
useful conversation which the giver of the book may wish to
introduce.

She found that among the numerous wants she met with, no small share
was owing to bad management, or to imposition; she was struck with
the small size of the loaves. Wheat was now not very dear, and she
was sure a good deal of blame rested with the baker. She sent for a
shilling loaf to the next great town, where the mayor often sent to
the