I Shall Place Your Wife In Another House, Where She Shall
Receive Half A Dollar A Week For Spinning; And Your Son A Dollar A
Month To Drive The Team.
You shall have besides good victuals to
eat, and good beds to lie on; will all this satisfy you, Andrew?
He
hardly understood what I said; the honest tears of gratitude fell
from his eyes as he looked at me, and its expressions seemed to
quiver on his lips. - Though silent, this was saying a great deal;
there was besides something extremely moving to see a man six feet
high thus shed tears; and they did not lessen the good opinion I had
entertained of him. At last he told me, that my offers were more
than he deserved, and that he would first begin to work for his
victuals. No, no, said I, if you are careful and sober, and do what
you can, you shall receive what I told you, after you have served a
short apprenticeship at my house. May God repay you for all your
kindnesses, said Andrew; as long as I live I shall thank you, and do
what I can for you. A few days after I sent them all three to - - ,
by the return of some waggons, that he might have an opportunity of
viewing, and convincing himself of the utility of those machines
which he had at first so much admired.
The further descriptions he gave us of the Hebrides in general, and
of his native island in particular; of the customs and modes of
living of the inhabitants; greatly entertained me. Pray is the
sterility of the soil the cause that there are no trees, or is it
because there are none planted? What are the modern families of all
the kings of the earth, compared to the date of that of Mr. Neiel?
Admitting that each generation should last but forty years, this
makes a period of 1200; an extraordinary duration for the
uninterrupted descent of any family! Agreeably to the description he
gave us of those countries, they seem to live according to the rules
of nature, which gives them but bare subsistence; their
constitutions are uncontaminated by any excess or effeminacy, which
their soil refuses. If their allowance of food is not too scanty,
they must all be healthy by perpetual temperance and exercise; if
so, they are amply rewarded for their poverty. Could they have
obtained but necessary food, they would not have left it; for it was
not in consequence of oppression, either from their patriarch or the
government, that they had emigrated. I wish we had a colony of these
honest people settled in some parts of this province; their morals,
their religion, seem to be as simple as their manners. This society
would present an interesting spectacle could they be transported on
a richer soil. But perhaps that soil would soon alter everything;
for our opinions, vices, and virtues, are altogether local: we are
machines fashioned by every circumstance around us.
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