in the carriage, he conceived, from the intoxicated state of the coachman, and the spirited look of the horses, that they were not safe; he, therefore, advised the maid, who was in the carriage with the children, to enter the inn, and that he would send them home in safety. The maid took the advice of the inn-keeper, quitted the carriage, and Andrews walked home with her and the two boys. The horses in the meantime, feeling themselves guided by a feeble hand (for horses know well the sort of driver or rider they have to deal with) set off at full speed, broke the carriage to pieces, and the coachman and footman were both killed on the spot. One of the boys in question was afterwards the hero of Trafalgar. Thus, the good inn-keeper did more to benefit old England than all the lords and ladies in the kingdom, with the exception of the great General."+ A man who gets intoxicated when he has the safety of people's lives committed to his care, is, in our opinion, as bad as a murderer; and were we appointed to form a jury to sit upon his conduct, we should have no hesitation in condemning him to the rack. And we really wish there were some punishment enacted against drunkards. * Lord Nelson. + Duke of Wellington. CHAPTER XVII. "Could I (he cried) express how bright a grace ; THE UNWASHED HANDS. ONE morning, when the bricklayer rose to go to his work, he did not feel himself well; Agnes, therefore, prevailed on him to stay at home that day and nurse himself. He took her advice, stayed from his work, and the following day was quite well. Thus, a little care at the comencemment of a complaint, might frequently prevent its increase, and certainly will never fail to shorten its duration. As the bricklayer lay on his arm-chair the day he was ill, Agnes said to him, "Dear father, if our reading disturb you, do say so, and my sisters shall not read any more to-day." "You are a dear good girl, Agnes, to think so much about your old father, but the lessons do not disturb me, on the contrary, I am amused by them: so go on, my own dear children." Upon this, little Hannah took her book to read, when Agnes, observing that her sister's hands were dirty, said, "Hannah, my dear, how is it that your hands and nails are so dirty? Surely you could not have washed them to-day, else they could not be in such a state." "I was so sorry to see my father unwell, that I forgot to wash my hands," replied Hannah. "That is the very best excuse you could possibly make for your breach of cleanliness," said Agnes; "but, remember, my dear sister, that cleanliness adds much to health; and besides, look into the Old Testament, and you will find that cleanliness was a part of the Jewish law; it is therefore right to observe it; for Christ came, not to abolish the law, but to fulfil it; therefore cleanliness is an obligation as binding on us as it was on the Jews. We cannot all have fine clothes, but every one can afford to be clean and sweet in his person. Water is plentiful to all the world, and a little soap is not dear. We believe London, notwithstanding its fogs, to be one of the healthiest capitals in the world, and that is entirely owing to the cleanliness of the town. Every thing offensive is carried off by means of drains, which is not the case in other large capitals. Nay," continued Agnes, "I have heard that the great plague, which depopulated London in the reign of Charles the Second, was entirely owing to the dirty state the town was then kept in; and the frequent plagues which we hear of in the East, are caused by a neglect of cleanliness." "Who told you all that, my Agnes ?" asked her father, "and how have you wisdom." learned so much "I have learned every thing I know from books, father, but for them, I should know nothing.' "I am determined," said Hannah, "that the plague shall never visit London by any act of mine, for I never, while I live, will neglect to wash my hands after this." "Your poor little hands," said Willy, "are like a single drop in the great ocean. Believe me, they will not in the smallest degree affect London, be they clean or be they dirty, or whether you have any hands at all.” "Brother," replied Agnes, "you speak very unthinkingly. London is composed of its inhabitants, and if each person were to say, 'Oh, I am only a single individual, whatever I do will not affect the community, I may therefore act as I please:' and were all the people of London to act so, instead of its being a healthy, it would be the most unhealthy place on the face of the earth. The whole of a city is composed of individuals, as a chain is of single rings if a single ring is deranged, the whole chain is put out of order. It is, therefore, the bounden duty of each individual to contribute his mite for the good of the whole." "Like the old woman," said Willy, laughing, "who scraped her cheese and gave the scrapings to the cat, saying, 'tis a pity to lose any thing, and we are bound to do all the good we can." "Then, my dear Willy, I trust that the good which both you and your sisters are doomed to perform in this world may surpass that of your old woman." "If it do not, Agnes, it will not be my fault; I have the will, but I may never have the power." "That will depend on yourself, Willy. Every man is just what he chooses to make himself. I mean every man who is blessed with good health; and, when his health is bad, the fault is generally his own, for very few are born invalids. Take care of your health then, and your industry will give you the means of being useful to others. And, if you will peruse the three following stories attentively, you will see how much our fortune is in our own power." CHAPTER XVIII. "As Cheltenham's celebrated well THE WASHERWOMAN AND HER TWO SONS. MARY WHITE was a widow who made a comfortable livelihood by washing for the gentry in her neighbourhood. She washed the clothes that were sent to her thoroughly, and got them up so well, that she |