arty laugh, and finished it with a heartier.
"Laugh and grow fat" is an apothegm which all people cannot follow, but
our mother did in the most satisfactory manner. Her skin was fair and
most thoroughly comfortably filled out; her hair was light, and her
contented spirit beamed out from a pair of large laughing blue eyes, so
that it was a pleasure to look at her as she sat at the head of the
table, serving out the viands to her hungry progeny. Our sisters were
very like her, and came fairly under the denomination of jolly girls;
and thoroughly jolly they were;--none of them ever had a headache or a
toothache, or any other ache that I know of. Our father was a good
specimen of a thorough English country gentleman; he was thorough in
everything, honest-faced, stout, and hearty, not over-refined, perhaps,
but yet gentle in all his thoughts and acts; a hater of a lie and every
thing dishonourable, hospitable and generous to the utmost of his means;
a protector of the poor and helpless, and a friend to all his
neighbours. Yes, and I may say more, both he and my mother were humble,
sincere Christians, and made the law of the Bible their rule of life.
He told a good story and laughed at it himself, and delighted to see our
mother and us laugh at it also. Had he been bred a lawyer, and lived in
London, he would have been looked upon as a first-rate wit; but I am
certain that he was much happier with the lot awarded to him. He had a
good estate; his tenants paid their rents regularly; and he had few or
no cares to disturb his digestion or to keep him awake at night; and I
am very certain that he would far rather have had us to hear his jokes,
and laugh at them with him, than all the wits London ever produced. He
delighted in joining in all our sports, either of the field or flood,
and we always looked forward to certain amusement when he was able to
accompany us. He was our companion and friend; we had no secrets from
him,--why should we? He was always our best adviser, and if we got into
scrapes, which one or the other of us was not unfrequently doing, we
were very certain that no one could extricate us as well as he could. I
don't mean to say that he forgot the proverb, "Spare the rod, spoil the
child;" or that we were such pieces of perfection that we did not
deserve punishment; but we had sense enough to see that he punished us
for our good: he did it calmly, never angrily, and without any
unnecessarily severe remark