Complete Novels of Maria Edgeworth

by Maria Edgeworth

  Minded. To mind is to think of a thing, to turn one’s attention, one’s mind to a thing.

  Mistake. To mistake is, to take one thing for another; to mistake the road; to mistake what is said; to mistake the meaning of any thing. Mis, in mistake, means wrong or ill.

  Mixed. To mix is to put things together, so as to make them touch in as many of their parts as we can.

  Moderate. Without violence. Moderate properly means what, is done by a measure. A moderate quantity: what is usually measured or given for any particular purpose. A pint of milk is a moderate quantity for one person, but a pail full would be an immoderate quantity.

  Neatly. Neat is what is clean, smooth, and in order.

  Nosegay. A bundle of flowers.

  Observed. To observe is to mind what we see, and hear, and touch.

  Opportunity. Fit place, or fit time. (See Dictionary.)

  Orrery. A machine for showing the motions of the moon and planets.

  Pay. To give money for any thing.

  Pence. Two half-pence make a penny; pence also means more pennies than one.

  Perceived. To perceive is to observe some particular thing.

  Print. To print means properly to make an impression. The print of a man’s foot in the sand means the mark or impression of a man’s foot in the sand; the print of a seal means its impression. Prints, a kind of pictures, are impressions upon paper, &c of lines, or figures carved upon copper: these lines are filled with ink; and, when the copper is pressed by a machine for that purpose on paper, on silk or vellum, the ink quits the lines in the copper, and sticks to the paper, &c. The beautiful prints in Bewick’s history of birds and quadrupeds are carved on wood. In general, prints are engraved on copper, and are therefore called engravings or copper-plates.

  Paddle. A small tool, with which weeds are pulled up; it also means a kind of oar, with which boats are moved.

  Pebbles. Small stones that have been rounded by being rubbed together by the motion of a river or the sea.

  Peculiar. What belongs to a particular thing, person, place, or nation.

  People. A number of persons. The people means the inhabitants of a country.

  Planted himself. To plant is to put a vegetable into the earth to make it grow; it sometimes means to drive one thing firmly into another. To plant oneself in a place means, to place oneself in such a manner, as to show that we mean to stay there some time.

  Pleasure. Pleasure is felt: it cannot be described by words.

  Present. At present; what is doing or passing now. Every thing that we think of, or that we perceive by any of our senses, must be done or must pass at some time. Time may be either present, past, or to come. What is to come is also called future. When you learn grammar, my little friends, you will read of the present tense, the past tense, and the future tense. Tense means Time.

  Prevent. To hinder a thing from being done. To prevent properly means to come before.

  Proceed. To go forward.

  Process. Method of doing a thing. It properly means the going forwards of any thing. Pro, at the beginning of a word, means for, before, in the place of, forward.

  Particles. Small parts.

  Property. What belongs to a person or to a thing. ‘My father’s horse,’ means the horse that belongs to my father, or that is my father’s property. There is another meaning of the word property: we say, ‘It is a property of lemons to have a sour taste.’ Acidity, or sourness, is a property of lemons, and of vinegar, and of sorrel, and of crab apples. ‘To live longer than other animals without water, is a property of the camel.’

  Punctuality. Exactness in doing what we have intended to do, or what we have said we would do.

  Punished. To punish is to be made to feel pain for doing what is wrong.

  Purposely. Designedly; intending to do it.

  Promise. To promise, is to tell a person that we will do something at a future time which they wish should be done. People may say, that they intend to do a thing, without promising. When people promise, they speak as if they expected that the persons who hear them should understand that they firmly resolved to do the thing which they say, and that others might afterwards, if they failed to keep their word, think that they were not to be trusted or depended upon. If we always speak truth, people must believe us: if we do not speak truth always, even those who love us best cannot believe us.

  Quantity. Size or number.

  Quarter of the sky. Quarter properly means fourth part of any thing: but it sometimes means not exactly the fourth part, but some parts separate from other parts, as, ‘The roads are bad in that quarter of the country—’Go to that quarter of the garden ‘He lives in a different quarter of the country.’

  Readily. Easily; quickly.

  Recollect. To recollect is, to collect again from one’s memory. Re, at the beginning of words, sometimes means backwards, and sometimes means again, — as, to re-peat, to re-turn.

  Repair. To mend; also to go to a place.

  Revolution. The going round of any thing to the place from which it set out.

  Round. What has no corners, or angles, is usually called round, though it may not be perfectly round. A globe is a figure round in all directions.

  Set. To set means to place; setting of the sun means its disappearing in the evening. You cannot yet understand what is meant by the motion of the earth, which occasions sun-rise and sun-set.

  Set on fire. To put fire to any thing, so as to make it burn.

  Shadow. My little friends, — hold a book, or any thing else, between the candle and a wall, or between the sun and a wall, and you will see, that what is so held prevents the light of the candle or of the sun from going to or reaching the wall: therefore that part of the wall, from which the light of the sun or candle is kept, is dark. If any hole is in the thing which you hold in your hand, the light will pass through that hole to the wall, and the wall will be light in that place. On the contrary, if a thread, or even a hair, hang at the edge of what you hold, that hair will hinder the light from coming to the wall, and a part of the wall, in the shape of that hair or thread, will be dark.

  The shadow you perceive is not a thing; it is only the want of light on some place.

  Shed. A roof, that is held up by posts, or rails, instead of walls; or what appears like a roof.

  Shoes. What are put upon feet, to hinder them from being hurt by the ground.

  Shop. A place where people work, or where things are sold.

  Soft. What you can press your finger into; what is not hard.

  Solid. Look for the word fluid.

  Soot. Smoke collected in small pieces; condensed steam, or vapor of oil, grease, wax, pitch, tar, or turpentine, resin or rosin, and of various other substances. You have learned the meaning of the word condensed.

  Stamps. Tools of wood, or metal, carved with different figures. These stamps are pressed upon different substances, to make impressions upon them.

  Stalk. That part of a plant upon which flowers or fruits grow.

  Steam. Vapor, caused by heat.

  Stem. The trunk of a plant, that which rises immediately from the root.

  Stick. A piece of wood; a small long piece of any thing, as a stick of sealing-wax, a stick of brimstone.

  Sticky. What will not fall easily from your hands, when you attempt to let it go.

  Still. In this place still means continual. Sometimes it means to be at rest.

  Store-room. A place where things are laid by to be kept safe. Things laid by for future use are called stores.

  Stoutly. Strongly; with courage.

  Straight. What is not bent; what is even, like a ruler.

  Subject. What a person is talking, or thinking or writing about.

  Sufficiently. Enough.

  Supposing. To suppose is to imagine that a thing has happened, or will happen, though perhaps it has not, or may not happen; as, Suppose the house were to tumble down, it would break the furniture to pieces. Suppose that we were to have plum-cake at tea,
would you give some of your share to your sister? — Now, I hope, my young friends, that this last supposition will soon be true.

  Stretched. Pulled or drawn to a larger size than what it usually is.

  Take notice. To observe; to pay attention to any thing.

  Tallow. The fat of animals. There is a tree in America, which produces a substance like tallow.

  Taught. To teach is to tell people how to do what they do not know how to do.

  Thermometer. An instrument for showing the heat of the air, and of other bodies. The thermometer, barometer, orrery, and air-pump, will entertain young people very much, when they have knowledge sufficient to enable them to understand their uses, and the manner in which they are made.

  Thunder-storm. A storm of thunder: a storm generally means violent wind; it also means snow, hail, and thunder.

  Trust. To trust people is to believe, and depend upon their truth and honesty.

  Truth. To tell truth is, to tell what weknow about any thing without adding to it, and without concealing or hiding any thing.

  Turf. That part of the ground that is covered with grass. Turf, in some places, means a kind of earth, mixt with the roots and leaves of decayed vegetables, which is used for firing.

  Udder. A bag under the belly of a cow, into which the cow’s milk comes.

  Understand. To know the meaning of any thing.

  Useful. What is of advantage; what contributes to our comfort, or convenience, or pleasure.

  Valuable. What people wish to keep, or obtain; what they like, or love, or what can be sold advantageously.

  War. People fight with one another when they think themselves injured, or when they are angry. When the people of one country fight against the people of another country, it is called war.

  Wistfully. As if he wished for something. Wistfully is a word that is not often used.

  PART II.

  After the summer was past, and after the autumn and winter were past, another spring came.

  Harry and Lucy were now each of them a year older.

  And during the year that had passed, they were become taller and stronger, and had learned a great many things that they did not know before.

  They had learned to read fluently; and they were therefore able to entertain themselves a little, during the winter evenings, with reading short stories in books, which their mother gave them; and they had learned a little arithmetic, and could cast up sums in addition, and could subtract.

  And they had each of them a little garden. Harry dug the ground when it was necessary, and Lucy pulled up weeds, and helped to wheel them away in her little wheelbarrow; and assisted in sowing seeds of different sorts, and in planting the roots of flowers.

  In the summer, she and Harry carried wa-

  ter to water the plants and flowers, which they had set and sown in the spring. And they had not only planted flowers, and sown small salad, but Harry had also a crop of peas, and a crop of potatoes, in his garden: for his father had seen that he was industrious, and for that reason he gave him a piece of good ground to be added to his garden; and, as it had been grass-ground for some time, it was so hard that Harry was not able to dig it. But his father had it dug roughly for him, and he had a cartload of manure laid upon it. Harry had observed very attentively how his father’s laborers had set potatoes; and in the beginning of the month of March he dug his ground over again, and marked it out into ridges, with stakes and a line, and spread the manure upon the ridges, leaving sufficient space between the ridges for the furrows. He then cut some potatoes, which his father had given him, into small pieces, to plant in the ground for sets. He took care to cut them, so that each piece should have an eye in it; that is to say, that each piece should have one of those little black spots in it, which contain the root of the potato; for, after the piece of potato has been some time in the ground, it rots away, and the root unfolds, and long fibres spread into the earth.

  He scattered these pieces upon the manure, at eight or ten inches from each other; and then he dug earth out of the furrows, that lay between the ridges, and covered the bits of potatoes and the manure with them, laying earth over them both to the depth of three or four inches. When he had made any mistake, or had not done the work well, his father assisted him, and showed him how to do it better.

  The rain in the following months, and the heat of the sun in the beginning of summer, had contributed to the growth of Harry’s crop, and in the middle of July he had some fine young potatoes fit to eat.

  About this time of the year the weather is generally very hot; and one day as Harry and his sister were sitting under the shady tree, which was mentioned in the former chapter, picking some cowslips for their mother, Harry observed that the shadow of the tree reached almost round the stem, and he had seen in the morning when he was at breakfast, that the shadow of the tree fell only on one side of it. He asked his father, who was passing by the reason of this, and his father took him to the door of the house, and desired him to look where the sun was; — and he saw that it was opposite the door, and very high in the sky. ‘Take notice, Harry, where you see the sun now, and observe where you see it this evening, when the sun is setting.’

  Harry said he knew where the sun set — that he could not see it from the hall-door; but that he could see it from that end of the house, which was at the right hand of the hall-door, as you go out.

  Father. Did you ever observe where it rises?

  Harry. Yes; it rose this morning at the other end of the house.

  Father. It did so. — Now do you know where are the South, and the North, and the East, and the West?

  Harry. No; but I believe the side of the sky where the sun rises is called the East?

  Father. It is so; and the side where it sets is called the West. Now you may always know the South and the North, wherever you are, if you know where the sun either rises or sets. If you know where it rises, stand with your left hand towards that part of the sky, and then the part of the sky before your face will be the South, and that part of the sky behind your back will be the North.

  In the same manner, if you know where the sun sets, turn your right hand towards that place, and the part of the sky opposite to you will be the South. But, Harry, you must remember that there are only two days in the year, when the sun sets exactly in the West, and rises exactly in the East.

  Harry. What days are those, father?

  Father. It would be of no use to you now to know the names of those days; but, when one of them comes, I will let you know it. On that day the sun rises exactly at six o’clock in the morning, and sets exactly at six o’clock in the evening.

  Father, said Harry, I have observed several times, that my shadow in the morning and in the evening is very long; but in the middle of the day I can scarcely see my shadow.

  Father. You must think about it yourself, Harry; for, if I tell you every thing that you want to know, without your taking the trouble to think, you will not have the habit of thinking for yourself; and without being able to think for yourself, you will never have good sense.

  The bricks, which Harry and Lucy had made the year before, had all been melted away (as the workmen say) by the rain, or broken, because they had not been burnt; but Harry had dug some tough yellow clay, of a proper sort, in the month of November, before the usual frosts of the winter had begun; and Harry mixed it well with his spade, and Lucy picked out the little pebbles with a small paddle, and the frost made the clay mellow, as the workmen call it. And in the spring Harry made nearly six hundred bricks, and built them into hacks, and covered them with turf, which his father had let him pare off the surface of the ground. And Harry’s father, who had been much pleased with his good behavior and industry, came to the tree where he was at work, and asked him if he would like to go to the brick-field, to see how bricks were burnt. Lucy wished much to go with them, and she ran and asked her mother to let her go; her mother very cheerfully consented, and said she would go along with her.

  Whilst L
ucy and her mother were getting ready to go, Harry ran to his garden, and dug some of his fine young potatoes, and put them into a basket which he had of his own, and returned to the house; and his father asked him what he intended to do with them.

  Sir, says Harry, last year, when I had spoilt the poor man’s bricks, I promised, that I would make him amends, and I determined, when I set my potatoes, to let him have the first of them that were fit to be dug, as I was told that early potatoes were more valuable, than those that came in later.

  Father. But you will not be able to carry such a heavy load so far.

  I will try, said Harry.

  He was able to proceed but a little way with his load without resting.

  What could he do?

  His father was willing to assist him, as he - had shown honesty and truth in keeping his promise, and good sense in the means, which he had taken to make the brickmaker amends for the injury which he had done him. He asked a farmer, whom he knew, and who was going by with a cart, to take the basket into his cart, and to leave it in the brick-field which was at the road-side.

  By the time they had reached the brickfield, to which they were going, and to which there was a pleasant walk through the fields, the farmer, who went by the road, had gotten with his cart to the same place.

  Harry thanked him, took up his basket, and marched stoutly into the place where the brickmaker was at work.

  The man knew him again, and was much pleased with Harry’s punctuality. He took the potatoes out of the basket, and said that they were worth full as much as the bricks, that had been spoilt.

  Harry’s father asked the man, to show him how he burned his bricks, to make them hard; and the man said, he was just going to set fire to a kiln of bricks, and that he might see how it was done.

  The kiln was made of the bricks, that were to be burned: these bricks were built up one upon another, and one beside the other, not quite close, but so as to leave a little room on every side of each brick; and, in the middle of the kiln, near the bottom, there were large holes filled with furze bushes.