ment. Only Betty Smart and Jenny Rose baked at home
in the whole parish; and who lived so well as they did? Yet the
general objection seemed reasonable. They could not bake without
yeast, which often could not be had, as no one brewed, except the
great folks and the public houses. Mrs. Jones found, however, that
Patty and Jenny contrived to brew as well as to bake. She sent for
these women, knowing that from them she could get truth and reason.
"How comes it," she said to them, "that you two are the only two
poor women in the parish who can afford to brew a small cask of
beer? Your husbands have no better wages than other men." "True,
madam," said Patty, "but they never set foot in a public house. I
will tell you the truth. When I first married, our John went to the
Checkers every night, and I had my tea and fresh butter twice a-day
at home. This slop, which consumed a deal of sugar, began to _rake_
my stomach sadly, as I had neither meat nor rice; at last (I am
ashamed to own it) I began to take a drop of gin to quiet the pain,
till in time, I looked for my gin as regularly as for my tea. At
last the gin, the ale-house, and the tea began to make us both sick
and poor, and I had like to have died with my first child. Parson
Simpson then talked so finely to us on the subject of improper
indulgences, that we resolved, by the grace of God, to turn over a
new leaf, and I promised John, if he would give up the Checkers, I
would break the gin bottle, and never drink tea in the afternoon,
except on Sundays, when he was at home to drink it with me. We have
kept our word, and both our eating and drinking, our health and our
consciences are better for it. Though meat is sadly dear, we can buy
two pounds of fresh meat for less than one pound of fresh butter,
and it gives five times the nourishment. And dear as malt is, I
contrive to keep a drop of drink in the house for John, and John
will make me drink half a pint with him every evening, and a pint
a-day when I am a nurse."

PUBLIC HOUSES.

As one good deed, as well as one bad one, brings on another, this
conversation set Mrs. Jones on inquiring why so many ale-houses were
allowed. She did not choose to talk to Sir John on this subject, who
would only have said, "let them enjoy themselves, poor fellows: if
they get drunk now and then, they work hard." But those who have
this false good-nature forget that while the man is _enjoying
himself_, as it is called, his wife and chil