THE POTTERS' COMMON BY MRS. SHERWOOD AUTHOR OF "LITTLE HENRY AND HIS BEARER," ETC. LONDON HOULSTON AND WRIGHT 65, PATERNOSTER ROW THE POTTERS' COMMON PART I. It is no uncommon thing to hear working people speaking to this purport:-" If such as we do not know our duty towards God, where is the wonder? We have had no opportunities of instruction; we have had no book-learning; we have been slaves all our lives, and must remain so to the end of the chapter." Such excuses pass very readily from one poor man to another, but I am much afraid that they will not stand good in that day when the secrets of all hearts shall be laid open; and for this reason, because they are seldom founded in truth. What poor man is there who has learned all he might have learned of his duty towards God and his neighbour? and how few are there of us, whether poor or rich, who have not often said unto the Lord, "Depart from me, for I desire not the knowledge of thy ways!" (Job xxi. 14.) Let us be quite sure then, that our ignorance is not wilful, before we trust to it as an excuse in the last day. In order to make my meaning plainer, I shall relate the history of a poor man, who used, at one time, like many others, to plead his humble station and manner of life as an excuse for his ignorance; though he was afterwards brought to confess, that it would have been entirely his own fault if he had not acquired as much knowledge as was necessary to salvation. There is a certain common on the borders of Staffordshire, where are many little huts (undeserving the name of cottages) in the occupation of persons whose business it is to go about the country with asses laden with pottery. These persons for the most part, I am sorry to say, are little better than thieves and vagabonds. Many of them have no better notion of religion than the beasts of the field. They spend the greater part of their time in travelling with their asses, and selling their commodities; and when they come home it is only to carouse, and spend the money which they have earned abroad, in eating, drinking, and idleness. It is the custom of these people, particularly in the summer months, to take their whole families with them when they go out, so that it often happens no persons are left upon the common but such as from age or sickness are not able to tramp after the asses. Now it happened on one occasion, about twenty years ago, that while the greater part of the inhabitants of this common were absent in pursuit of their calling, two boys, named John Day and William Smith, were left to amuse themselves as they could during all the summer months. John Day was an or phan, and was put to board with an old man on the common, whose business it was to make baskets and panniers for the asses; and William Smith, while his father and mother and five other children were abroad, was left at home in order to bear his grandmother company. Now the old people who had the care of these children had no notion of keeping them regularly employed, although they might have found plenty of work for them to do; but because they felt it less troublesome to do a job themselves than to make the children do it, their discipline, like that of many other inconsiderate people, consisted in nothing more than railing at the boys from time to time, and calling them all manner of ill names, while they suffered them to persevere from day to day in habits of idleness and worthlessness. As John Day and William Smith had nothing useful to occupy them, it was no wonder if they often met together to play and do mischief. Not that they had any real regard for each other, since scarcely a day passed in which they did not quarrel; but time hung heavy on their hands, and there was no other company to be had. A high road passed over one corner of the common, and by the road-side grew an old elm tree, under which these boys would oftentimes lie half the day, when the heat of the |