Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

wife, in a faint voice; and you have parted with the colt, and brought us back nothing but a gross of green, paltry spectacles! 'Dear mother,' cried the boy, 'why won't you listen to reason? I had them at a dead bargain, or I should not have bought them. The silver rims alone will sell for double the money.'

e

"A fig for the silver rims,' cried my wife in a passion: 'I dare swear they won't sell for above half the money at the rate of broken silver, five shillings an ounce." You need be under no uneasiness,' cried I, 'about selling the rims, for they are not worth sixpence; for I perceive they are only copper varnished over.' 'What?' cried my wife, 'not silver! the rims not silver?'

more silver than your saucepan.'

ee e

'No,' cried I,

'no

And so,' returned she, we have parted with the colt, and have only got a gross of green spectacles with copper rims and shagreen cases! the blockhead has been imposed upon, and should have known his company better.' There, my dear,' cried I, 'you are wrong; he should not have known them at all.' Hang the idiot!' returned she, to bring me such stuff - if I had them I would throw them in the fire.' 'There again, you are wrong, my dear,' cried I; 'for

though they be copper, we will keep them by usas copper spectacles, you know, are better than nothing.'

"By this time, the unfortunate Moses was undeceived. He now saw that he had been imposed upon by a prowling sharper, who, observing his figure, had marked him for an easy prey. I, therefore, asked the circumstances of his deception. He sold the horse, it seems, and walked the fair in search of another. A reverend-looking man brought him to a tent, under pretence of having one to sell. 'Here,' continued Moses, we met another man, very well dressed, who desired to borrow twenty pounds upon these, saying that he wanted money, and would dispose of them for a third of the value.

[ocr errors]

The first gentleman, who pretended to be my friend, whispered to me to buy them, and cautioned me not to let so good an offer pass. I sent for Mr. Flamborough, our neighbor, and they talked him up as finely as they did me; and so at last we were persuaded to buy the two gross between us.'"

Thus ended the story of Moses at the fair. There is a sequel to it in which the laugh is at the expense of Dr. Primrose, who proves himself no wiser than

did his son Moses; but I will leave that for him to tell you when you become better acquainted.

And now, as we leave the little cottage, let me urge you to visit it again. I have told you only a bit about the delightful family who inhabit it, but I hope that I have said enough to induce you to follow their fortunes further.

If you are sufficiently interested to wonder whether or not Mrs. Primrose ever gratified her desire to see her lovely daughters make a figure in the world, or whether the Vicar's life always proved so quiet and uneventful as at first,-if, in short, you wish to know anything more about them, I refer you to that dear old story-teller, Oliver Goldsmith, who has painted such humorous and pathetic pictures of this admirable family, that all the world has laughed and wept over them.

LOCH KATRINE.

[graphic][merged small]
« AnteriorContinuar »