Chapter 17
Section 17 of A Cup of Sweets That Can Never Colloid, or Delightful Tales for Good Children. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. A Cup of Sweets by Elizabeth Semple and Elizabeth Sandham.
The Reward of Benevolence. Mrs. Clifford, being particularly satisfied with the attention her three children, Alfred, Robert and Helen, had for some time passed paid to their lessons and to the instruction of their masters, told them she would treat them with a charming walk in the woods on the opposite side of the river and that if they would carry some bread or biscuits with
them, she thought they should have no difficulty in finding a house where they might procure some milk and instead of returning home to drink tea, she would spend the whole afternoon and evening in rambling about with them. This was charming news for the young folks who took care not to give her the trouble of waiting for them, for they were all through ready at least half an hour before the time
she had appointed for their departure, which they looked forward to with the utmost impatience, and the moment Mrs. Clifford joined them in the hall, away they all went with joyful hearts and cheerful faces through the field and down the long lane which led to the ferry. This is very pleasant, Mama, said Alfred. I think I should never be tired of walking in the fields and woods, yet I must own, I
do long for winter, that we may purchase the magic lantern we are to have. I think with the guinea grandpa had given each of us and what we had before in our little purses, we shall be able to have a very large one. Oh dear, exclaimed Ellen, how delightful it will be to be able to see it as often as we please and to show it to our friends.
And Mama, do you know that Robert is to be the person who shows it, for he says he could talk just like the man who came to our house last year. So I can, answered Robert, and I wish it was thought that you might hear what a long story I should tell you about the sun and the moon and the king of Persia and his caesars and the cat and the cook.
I would rather have a magic lantern than anything in the whole world. Chatting in this manner and amusing themselves by looking at different objects as they passed along, they found themselves at the ferry before they expected it and about being just ready to pull off, they stepped into it and seated themselves with several others who were going over to the other side of the road.
Their attention was very soon drawn to a poor woman who with an infant on her knee and a little girl and boy by her side, whom she frequently kissed and pressed to her bosom, wept as if her heart was breaking. As soon as they were landed, Mrs. Clifford stopped the woman, kindly inquired into the cause of her distress and was immediately informed by her that she had lately lost her
husband, who having been long in an ill state of health and unable to work, had left her encumbered with several debts, which she had not the means of paying, and that though she labored very hard and had discharged some of the small ones, a hard-hearted man to whom she owed six guineas, declaring he would not wait a day longer, had that morning seized upon her furniture and all her little property determined, as he said, to have his money before
six o'clock and to turn her and her children out to sleep in the high road or where they thought fit. She had been, she told Mrs. Clifford to an uncle of her husband's who lived at the market town, begging him to take pity upon her and her innocent children, but Madam, added she, he was deaf to my entreaties and turned me from his door, and I am now going home to sell all my
things taken from me and what will become of us this night. God alone can tell. Mrs. Clifford was extremely affected by this melancholy tale and walked with the poor unhappy woman to her cottage where they really found two ill-looking men taking down the bed and packing up the furniture.
The poor creature began to wring her hands and cry bitterly, and the children, though they did not understand what the men were going to do, clung to their mother and would not move from her side. Alfred, Robert, and Helen were, however, old enough to understand perfectly well the distress of the poor woman and the misery and wretchedness to which she and her helpless children were exposed, and fortunately for her, the tender and compassionate hearts immediately prompted them to
endeavor to relieve her. The pleasure they had promised themselves in purchasing a magic lantern and being in possession of such an amusement for the long evenings of the approaching winter appeared to them very trifling in comparison to the delight of snatching this poor family out of the hands of the unfeeling wretches they had to deal with, and leading their mama into the little garden,
earnestly entreated her to take the three guineas their grandpa had given them, as well as the contents of their little purses, and employ the whole to relieve the poor woman and beg her in the most pressing manner to make up the deficiency. Mrs. Clifford pressed them tenderly to her heart, expressing the greatest satisfaction at the resolution they had taken and assuring them she would make up the sum with the greatest pleasure
and that the proof they now gave of their feelings and humanity made them dearer to her than ever, adding that she was certain four and twenty hours would not pass before they would be rewarded for their goodness. The men were immediately stopped, the debt discharged, and the furniture replaced in proper order. The poor woman knew not how to express her joy and her gratitude. She scarcely knew
what she was doing, but at length, recollecting herself, entreated Mrs. Clifford and her children to be seated and accept of such refreshment as she had to offer them. Her little table was soon covered with a cloth as white as snow, and fresh milk, eggs, butter, and a nice brown loaf were set before them, of which they partook with great satisfaction. They did not quit this little family till a late hour and could talk of nothing on the way home but the pleasure they felt in reflection
of having left them so happy, of how they had been delighted when they saw the two hard-hearted men walk out of the cottage, and how differently the poor woman and her children would pass the night to what they might have expected. Elford said the good action they had done that afternoon would be the pleasantest they could have to talk of in the winter evenings, and Robert was of opinion that a visit now and then to the cottage, which their mama had promised him, would afford prettier
stories for him to repeat than anything he could tell of the king of Prussia or his hasars. As for Helen, she declared that her heart was so light and she felt herself so happy and joyful that she could almost jump over the moon. They retired to rest in this pleasant disposition and told their mama the next morning that they had never been so happy in their lives, that they went to bed thinking on the great day they had, and after thanking God who had given them the means
of doing it, they had immediately fallen into a sweet sleep that the moment they awoke they had found themselves in the same happy humor, pleased with themselves and with everybody they saw, and were very well convinced that the magic lantern could never have procured them one quarter of the pleasure which they now felt and which would be renewed every time they visited the poor woman at the cottage and whenever they recollected her story, I told you my children, said Mrs. Clifford,
that four and twenty hours would not pass before you would be rewarded, and you must know I am certainly well convinced that the heartfelt pleasure arising from the reflection of such an act of kindness and benevolence to a fellow creature in distress is the greatest and most solid reward that could possibly have been bestowed upon you, far superior to and more lasting than any satisfaction you could have procured by laying out your money in any other way.
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