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Article THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES or PETER PORCUPINE; ← Page 3 of 4 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Life And Adventures Or Peter Porcupine;
close of the day , to reach home was a task of infinite difficulty . My next employment wa ; wee iing wheat , and leading a single horse at harrowing barley . Hoeing peas followed , and hence I arrived at the honour of joining the reapers in harvest , driving the team , and holding the plough . We were all of us strong and laboruus , and my father used to boast , that he had four boys , the eldest of whom was but fifteen years old , who did as much work as any three men in the
pa rish of Farnharn . Honest pride , and happy days ! I have some faint recollection of going to school to an old woman , who , I believe , did not succeed in teaching me my letters . In the winter evenings my father taught us all to read and write , and gave us a pretty tolerable knowledge of arithmetic . Grammar he did not perfectly understand himself , and therefore his endeavours to teach
us that necessarily failed ; for though he thought he understood it , and though he made us get the rules by heart , we learnt nothing at all of the principles . Our religion was that of the Church of England , to which I have ever remained attached ; the more so , perhaps , as it bears the name of my country . As my ancestors were ever persecuted for their
religious opinions , they never had an opportunity of giving such a singular proof of their faith as Dr . Franklin ' s grandfather did , when he kept his Bible under the lid of a close-stool . ( What a book-case !) If I had been in the place of Dr . Franklin , I never would have related this ridiculous circumstance , especially as it must be construed
into a boast of his grandfather ' s having an extraordinary degree of veneration for a book , which , it is well-known , he himself durst not believe in . As to politics , we were like the rest of the country people in England ; that is to say , we neither knew nor thought any thing aboutthe matter . The shouts of victory , or the murmurs at a defeat , would
now and then break in upon our tranquillity for a moment ; but I do not remember ever having seen a newspaper in the house , and most certainly that privation did not render us less free , happy , or industrious . After , however , the American war had continued for some time , and the cause and nature of it began to beumderstood , or rather
misunderstood , by the lower classes of the people of England , we became a little better acquainted with subjects of this kind . It is well known , that the people were , as to numbers , nearly equally divided jn their opinions concerning that war , and their wishes respecting the result of it . My father was a partizan of the Americans : he used frequently to dispute on the subject with the gardener of a nobleman
who lived near us . This was generally done with good humour , over a pot of our best ale ; yet the disputants sometimes grew warm , and gave way to language that could not fail to attract our attention . Mv father " was worsted without doubt , as he had for antagonist a shrewd and sensible old Scotchman , far his superior in political knowledge ; but he pleaded before a partial audience : we thought there was but one wise mat > in the world , and that that one was our father . He wh »
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Life And Adventures Or Peter Porcupine;
close of the day , to reach home was a task of infinite difficulty . My next employment wa ; wee iing wheat , and leading a single horse at harrowing barley . Hoeing peas followed , and hence I arrived at the honour of joining the reapers in harvest , driving the team , and holding the plough . We were all of us strong and laboruus , and my father used to boast , that he had four boys , the eldest of whom was but fifteen years old , who did as much work as any three men in the
pa rish of Farnharn . Honest pride , and happy days ! I have some faint recollection of going to school to an old woman , who , I believe , did not succeed in teaching me my letters . In the winter evenings my father taught us all to read and write , and gave us a pretty tolerable knowledge of arithmetic . Grammar he did not perfectly understand himself , and therefore his endeavours to teach
us that necessarily failed ; for though he thought he understood it , and though he made us get the rules by heart , we learnt nothing at all of the principles . Our religion was that of the Church of England , to which I have ever remained attached ; the more so , perhaps , as it bears the name of my country . As my ancestors were ever persecuted for their
religious opinions , they never had an opportunity of giving such a singular proof of their faith as Dr . Franklin ' s grandfather did , when he kept his Bible under the lid of a close-stool . ( What a book-case !) If I had been in the place of Dr . Franklin , I never would have related this ridiculous circumstance , especially as it must be construed
into a boast of his grandfather ' s having an extraordinary degree of veneration for a book , which , it is well-known , he himself durst not believe in . As to politics , we were like the rest of the country people in England ; that is to say , we neither knew nor thought any thing aboutthe matter . The shouts of victory , or the murmurs at a defeat , would
now and then break in upon our tranquillity for a moment ; but I do not remember ever having seen a newspaper in the house , and most certainly that privation did not render us less free , happy , or industrious . After , however , the American war had continued for some time , and the cause and nature of it began to beumderstood , or rather
misunderstood , by the lower classes of the people of England , we became a little better acquainted with subjects of this kind . It is well known , that the people were , as to numbers , nearly equally divided jn their opinions concerning that war , and their wishes respecting the result of it . My father was a partizan of the Americans : he used frequently to dispute on the subject with the gardener of a nobleman
who lived near us . This was generally done with good humour , over a pot of our best ale ; yet the disputants sometimes grew warm , and gave way to language that could not fail to attract our attention . Mv father " was worsted without doubt , as he had for antagonist a shrewd and sensible old Scotchman , far his superior in political knowledge ; but he pleaded before a partial audience : we thought there was but one wise mat > in the world , and that that one was our father . He wh »