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In all Mr. Bacon's views he was fortunate enough to
have the hearty concurrence of the wealthiest person in the
parish. This was a good man, Allison by name, who, having
realized a respectable fortune in the metropolis as a
tobacconist, and put out his sons in life according to their
respective inclinations, had retired from business at the age
of threescore, and established himself with an unmarried
daughter, and a maiden sister some ten years younger than
himself, in his native village, that he might there, when his
hour should come, be gathered to his fathers.

“The providence of God,” says South, “has so ordered
the course of things, that there is no action, the usefulness
of which has made it the matter of duty and of a profession,
but a man may bear the continual pursuit of it, without
loathing or satiety. The same shop and trade that employs
a man in his youth, employs him also in his age. Every
morning he rises fresh to his hammer and his anvil: custom
has naturalized his labor to him; his shop is his element,
and he cannot, with any enjoyment of himself, live out of
it.” The great preacher contrasts this with the wearisomeness
of an idle life, and the misery of a continual round of
what the world calls pleasure. “But now,” says he, “if
God has interwoven such a contentment with the works
of our ordinary calling, how much superior and more refined
must that be that arises from the survey of a pious
and well-governed life?”

This passage bears upon Mr. Allison's case, partly in the
consolatory fact which it states, and wholly in the

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application which South has made of it. At the age of fourteen
he had been apprenticed to an uncle in Bishopsgate Street
Within; and twenty years after, on that uncle's death, had
succeeded to his old and well-established business. But
though he had lived there prosperously and happily six and
twenty years longer, he had contracted no such love for it
as to overcome the recollections of his childhood. Grateful
as the smell of snuff and tobacco had become to him, he
still remembered that cowslips and violets were sweeter;
and that the breath of a May morning was more exhilarating
than the air of his own shop, impregnated as it was
with the odor of the best Virginia. So having buried his
wife, who was a Londoner, and made over the business to
his eldest son, he returned to his native place, with the
intention of dying there; but he was in sound health of
body and mind, and his green old age seemed to promise,—
as far as anything can promise, — length of days.

Of his two other sons, one had chosen to be a clergyman,
and approved his choice both by his parts and diligence;
for he had gone off from Merchant-Tailors' School to St.
John's, Oxford, and was then a fellow of that college. The
other was a mate in the Merchants' service, and would soon
have the command of a ship in it. The desire of seeing
the world led him to this way of life; and that desire had
been unintentionally implanted by his father, who, in making
himself acquainted with everything relating to the herb out
of which his own fortune was raised, had become fond of
reading voyages and travels. His conversation induced the
lad to read these books, and the books confirmed the inclination
which had already been excited; and, as the boy was
of an adventurous temper, he thought it best to let him
follow the pursuit on which his mind was bent.

The change to a Yorkshire village was not too great for
Mr. Allison, even after residing nearly half a century in
Bishopsgate Street Within. The change in his own household,
indeed, rendered it expedient for him to begin, in this

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sense, a new life. He had lost his mate; the young birds
were full-fledged and had taken flight; and it was time that
he should look out a retreat for himself and the single nestling
that remained under his wing, now that his son and
successor had brought home a wife. The marriage had
been altogether with his approbation; but it altered his
position in the house; and in a still greater degree his
sister's; moreover, the nest would soon be wanted for another
brood. Circumstances thus compelled him to put in
effect what had been the dream of his youth, and the still
remote intention of his middle age.

Miss Allison, like her brother, regarded this removal as a
great and serious change, preparatory to the only greater
one in this world that now remained for both; but, like
him, she regarded it rather seriously than sadly, or sadly
only in the old sober meaning of the word; and there was
a soft, sweet, evening sunshine in their prospect, which both
partook, because both had retained a deep affection for the
scenes of their childhood. To Betsey, her niece, nothing
could be more delightful than the expectation of such a removal.
She, who was then only entering her teens, had
nothing to regret in leaving London; and the place to
which she was going was the very spot which, of all others
in this wide world, from the time in which she was conscious
of forming a wish, she had wished most to see. Her
brother, the sailor, was not more taken with the story of
Pocahontas and Captain Smith, or Dampier's Voyages, than
she was with her aunt's details of the farm and the dairy at
Thaxted Grange, the May-games and the Christmas gambols,
the days that were gone, and the elders who were
departed. To one born and bred in the heart of London,
who had scarcely ever seen a flock of sheep, except when
they were driven through the streets to or from Smithfield,
no fairy tale could present more for the imagination than a
description of green fields and rural life. The charm of
truth heightened it, and the stronger charm of natural

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piety; for the personages of the tale were her near kin,
whose names she had learned to love, and whose living
memory she revered, but whose countenances she never
could behold till she should be welcomed by them in the
everlasting mansions of the righteous.

None of the party were disappointed when they had established
themselves at the Grange. Mr. Allison found full
occupation at first in improving the house, and afterwards
in his fields and garden. Mr. Bacon was just such a clergyman
as he would have chosen for his parish priest, if it had
been in his power to choose, only he would have had him
provided with a better benefice. The single thing on which
there was a want of agreement between them was, that
the Vicar neither smoked nor took snuff; he was not the
worst company on this account, for he had no dislike to
the fragrance of a pipe; but his neighbor lost the pleasure
which he would have had in supplying him with the best
Pig-tail, and with Strasburg or Rappee. Miss Allison fell
into the habits of her new station the more easily, because
they were those which she had witnessed in her early
youth; she distilled waters, dried herbs, and prepared conserves, —
which were at the service of all who needed them
in sickness. Betsey attached herself at first sight to Deborah,
who was about five years elder, and soon became to her as
a sister. The aunt rejoiced in finding so suitable a friend
and companion for her niece; and as this connection was a
pleasure and an advantage to the Allisons, so was it of the
greatest benefit to Deborah.

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