THE WORKER IN CHRIST'S VINEYARD. the ugly children I fondled, the pointers and spaniels I caressed, the cider I commended, and the wine I swallowed. After these irresistible flatteries, I inquired of each if he could recommend to me a house ; and said that I had a little plan, which I hoped would secure their orchards frombeing robbed, their rabbits from being shot, their poultry from being stolen, and whichmight lower the poor-rates. If effect be the best proof of eloquence, then mine was a good speech, for I gained at length the hearty concurrence of the whole people, and their promise to discourage or favour the poor in proportion as they were attentive or negligent in sending their children." Having gained an advantage thus far, Hannah More, fixing, as the principal scene of her operations, on " a central parish of six large ones, which had not so much as a resident curate," hired " an old vicarage-house which has had no inhabitant these hundred years," and prepared to open a school for the children of the poor. The labours of the sisters, Mr. Wilberforce observes, " can only be equalled by Spenser's Lady Knights, and they seem to be much of the same kind too," for they had " all sorts of monsters to cope withal." Earnest-minded and steadfast, they soon had not only the satisfaction of seeing their first attempt miraculously successful, but had schools and various little institutions over a tract of country extending ten or twelve miles, with nearly five hundred children in training. The beginning was encouraging ; the pupils were 34
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