THE TWO SHOEMAKERS. JACK BROWN and JAMES STOCK were two lads, apprenticed at nearly the same time to Mr. Williams, a shoemaker, in a small town in Oxfordshire. They were pretty near the same age, but of very different characters and 'dispositions. Brown was eldest son to a farmer in good circumstances, who gave the usual apprentice fee with him. Being a wild giddy boy, whom his father could not well manage or instruct in farming, he thought it better to send him out to learn a trade at a distance, than to let him idle about at home; for Jack always preferred bird'snesting and marbles to any other employment, and would trifle about half the day, when his father thought he was at school, with any boys he could meet with who were as idle as himself, and never could be prevailed on to do or to learn any thing, while a game at taw could be had for love or money. All this time his little brothers, much younger than himself, were beginning to follow the plough, or to carry the corn to the mill, as soon as they were able to mount a cart-horse. Jack, however, who was a lively boy, and did not naturally want either sense or good-nature, might have turned out well enough, if he had not had the misfortune to be his mother's favourite. She concealed and forgave all his faults. To be sure he was a little wild, she would say, but he would not make the worse man for that; for Jack had a good spirit of his own, and she would not have it broke, and so make a mope of the boy. The farmer, for a quiet life, as it is called, gave up all these points to his wife, and with them gave up the future virtue and happiness of his child. He was a laborious and industrious man, but he had no religion; he thought only of the gains and advantages of the present day, and never took the future into the account. His wife managed him entirely; and, as he was really notable, he did not trouble his head about any thing further. If she had been careless in her dairy, he would have stormed and swore; but as she only ruined one child by indulgence, and almost broke the hearts of the rest by unkindness, he gave himself little concern about the matter. The cheese certainly was good, and that, indeed, is a great point; but she was neglectful of her children, and a tyrant to her servants. Her husband's substance, indeed, was not wasted, but his happiness was not consulted. His house, it is true, was not dirty, but it was the abode of fury, ill-temper, and covetousness. And the farmer, though he did not care for drink, was too often driven to the public-house in an evening, because his own was neither quiet nor comfortable. The mother was, always scolding, and the children were always crying. Jack, however, notwithstanding his idleness, picked up a little reading and writing, but never could learn to cast an account; that was too much labour. His mother was desirous he should continue at school; not so much for the sake of his learning (which she had not sense enough to value), but to save her darling from the fatigue of labour; for if he had not gone to school, she knew he must have gone to work-and she thought the former was the least tiresome of the two. Indeed, this foolish woman had such an opinion of his genius, that she used, from a child, to think he was too wise for any thing but a parson, and hoped she should live to see him She did not wish to see her son a minister, because she loved either learning or goodness, but because she thought it would make Jack a gentleman, and set him above his brothers. one. Farmer Brown still hoped, that though Jack was 1 likely to make but an idle and ignorant farmer, yet he might make no bad tradesman, when he should be removed from the indulgences of a father's house, and from a silly mother, whose fondness kept him back in every thing. This woman was enraged when she found that so fine a scholar, as she took Jack to be, was to be put apprentice to a shoemaker. The farmer, however, for the first time in his life, would have his own way. But being a worldly man, and too apt to mind only what is falsely called the main chance, instead of being careful to look out for a sober, prudent, and religious master for his son, he left all that to accident, as if it had been a thing of little or no consequence. This is a very common fault, and fathers who are guilty of it, are in a great measure answerable for the future sins and errors of their children, when they grow up in the world, and set up for themselves. If a man gives his son a good education, a good example, and a good master, it is indeed possible that the son may not turn out well; but it does not often, happen and when it does, the father has no blame resting on him. And it is a great point towards a man's comfort, to have his conscience quiet in that respect, however God may think fit to over-rule events. The farmer, however, took care to desire his friends. to inquire for a shoemaker who had good business, and was a good workman; and the mother did not forget to put in her word, and desired that it might be one who was not too strict; for Jack had been brought up tenderly, was a meek boy, and could not bear to be contradicted in any thing. And this is the common notion of meekness among people who know no better. Mr. Williams was recommended to the farmer as being the best shoemaker in the town in which he lived, and far from a strict master; and, without further inquiries, to Mr. Williams he went. James Stock, who was the son of an honest labourer in the next village, was bound out by the parish, in consideration of his father having so numerous a family, that he was not able to put him out himself. James was in every thing the very reverse of his new companion; he was a modest, industrious, pious youth; and |