THE FAMILY WHO NEVER HAD BAD NEIGHBORS.






<PRE>
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
5 February 1849


"So you have bought the pleasant farm where Mr. DALTON used to live,"
said Mrs. EMEROY to Mrs. AUSTIN.  "It is a pretty place, but, after all,
I shall not envy you, for there will be the WATSONs right under your
elbow, and worse neighbors you never found.  WATSON, you know, spends
all he can get for liquor, and his wife is little better than himself;
indeed, some say if she was the woman she should be, her husband would
be a better man.  And there are the children, the pests of the whole
neighborhood - brought up to idleness and michief, they bid fair to
perpetuate their parents' character.

"Poor children!" said Mrs. AUSTIN mournfully--"what better can you
expect of them than that they will perpetuate their parents' characters,
unless there be a redeeming influence cast around them?  The poor mother
has had much to harden her heart.  She was an orphan, cast on the world
in infancy.  Her heart never unfolded the bud of its affections beneath
the genial smiles of parental love.  Everything in her that was good was
checked and blasted by the evil influences that surrounded her.  How can
we expect one to be good and kind, who never knew what kindness was
herself"  We do not know, Mrs. EMEROY, what we should be if our fate had
been like hers."

"True," replied Mrs. E., "but it does seem as if she might know enough
to let her neighbors' property alone;  you know they say she will
steal.  But you and I ought to thank heaven that, strong as we think our
principles to be, they have not been tried by temptations such as hers.
We do know know what it is to be hungry, and cold, and to see our little
ones shivering about us, while our neighbors have enough and to spare."

"Very well," said Mrs. EMEROY rather indignantly, "we shall see how you
like to have your clothes line and your fruit treet robbed every now and
then."

"That will be very unpleasant, if it occurs," was the quiet reply.  "But
I believe that society is guilty for a great deal of the mischief is
suffers from such persons.  They are educated in poverty and vice.  No
smile of love falls on their cheerless childhood; no kind voice warns
them of the evils which surround their path; no kind hand is extended to
raise them up when they are falling; but they are often repelled with
aversion and contempt by those who profess to be christians and
philanthropists."

"You have singular notions, Mrs. AUSTIN," rejoined her friend.  "For
myself, I must confess I cannot help an aversion for such people, and
wishing them as far off as possible."

A few days after the above conversation, Mr. and Mrs. AUSTIN took
possession of their new home.--They were humble, unpretending people,
but they were christians, and they had learned to believe it their duty
to imitate the example of their master, who came to seek and to save
that which was lost.  They were not among those whose sympathies are
inactive when excited by the miseries which pass before their eyes.

They had entered upon a sphere which was to give a trial to their
patience and an opportunity for the exercise of the christian
benevolence.  As soon as they were settled, Mrs. AUSTIN called on the
WATSONs.  It was not without a feeling of loathing that she entered
their ruinous hovel, but she was resolved to become acquainted with them
and, if possible, to do them good.  The children, poor, little, dirty,
half-naked creatures--ran away to hide when she entered, and Mrs.
WATSON, with a look of surprise, rose and offered her a broken chair.

"We have just come into the place," she said, "and, as I am anxious to
become acquainted with my neighbors, I have taken the liberty to call."

"I am much obliged," replied Mrs. WATSON; "people seldom take so much
notice of us."

Mrs. AUSTIN inquired kindly respecting her health, and found that the
poor woman was far from being well.  The children began to creep
around.  She displayed a handful of apples which she took from her
pocket, and they soon gathered around her.--She gave each an apple, and
patted their curley heads with kind and gentle words.  The little
creatures looked wildly at her, as if unable to comprehend the cause of
such unwonted kindness.

When the kind lady rose to depart, she asked Mrs. WATSON to let Mary, a
child of seven years old, accompany her home that she might send her
back with some medicine.  The child sprang forward with a cry of
pleasure, and, placing her hand in Mrs. AUSTIN's, looked affectionately
in her face;  then, starting back, she looked at her mother, who, she
remembered, had not given her consent.  Mrs. W. told Mary that she might
go, but promised her a whipping if she was not back soon.

Mrs. AUSTIN took the child by the hand and departed.  It was a cold day
in November, and the wind fluttered poor Mary's frock and blew back the
tangled curls from her naked brow.  Mrs. AUSTIN tied her handkerchief
over her head.

"Are not your feet cold, dear?" she said as she looked down and saw she
had no shoes.

"Yes, ma'am," said Mary; "but mother says we shall get no shoes this
winter, for father spends all he can get for drink."

They reached home, and Mrs. A. found a hood, a pair of shoes and a shawl
for Mary, and some medicine for her mother.

The child had never been so happy before as she was when she tripped
home that night.  She was not only delighted with the presents she had
received, but the kind words and kind looks of her new friend had fallen
like sunshine on her little heart.

When Mr. AUSTIN came home, his wife informed him of the call she had
made.  "The situation of the family is truly deplorable," she added.
"Is there nothing we can do for them?"

"Indeed I do not know," replied her husband.  "If there is, I doubt not
you will think of it.  WATSON  is terribly besotted.  I met him to-night
reeling home probably to abuse his family; and yet....[page cut off rest
of sentence]...........

"I wish you to work on my house," continued Mr.A.  "We have several
unfinished rooms, and if you will come I will pay you at Mr. FROST's
store, where you may obtain groceries and clothes for your family."

There was something so different in the kind and polite manner of Mr.
AUSTIN from the rude contempt with which he was usually treated, that he
felt his heart expand.  He was again a man among them.

The bargain was soon closed, and the next morning, true to his promise,
WATSON came to his work.  He commenced, but his hand was unsteady and
his manner restless.  Mr. AUSTIN noticed it and kept him engaged in
cheerful conversation.  Before noon he asked for cider, but was told he
could have none; but Mrs. AUSTIN sent him a mug of hot ginger-beer,
which he drank eagerly, for his thirst was intense.  He kept at his
work, but evidently suffered much for the want of his accustomed
stimulant.

When night came, Mr. A. took him to the store and paid min for his work
in some articles necessary for his family;  and with kind, encouraging
words, bade him good night.

When he got home and exhibited a large salt fish and a bag of flour, the
children shouted for joy --- It takes but little to make children
happy.  Alas, that, that little should be so often denied them!-- Mrs.
WATSON's face wore an expression of pleasure quite unnatural to her,
while she went to work to prepare supper.

"Dear papa," said little Mary, pressing close to his side, "I wish you
would always work for Mr. AUSTIN.  If you would, I am sure little Johnny
would get some shoes."

A tear came into the father's eye as he looked upon his half naked
children and witnessed the joy wich one day's labor conferred upon
them.  He placed the child upon his knee and kissed her cheeks with
parental tenderness.  His passions had been checked, his better nature
aroused, and he sat silent through the evening.  His past life came up
before him.  He remembered his own neglected and hopeless childhood; for
he was a drunkard's child.  He saw that the evil habits which he then
contracted were working the ruin of himself and family; and the question
came home to his heart--whether he should entail a like curse upon his
posterity and make the little ones around him miserable outcasts from
society like himself.  He resolved that for one week he would not
drink.  He laid down on his pillow that night with a feeling of
satisfaction that he had not experienced before for years.

The next day, Mrs. AUSTIN sent for little Mary to come and spend the day
with her and take care of the baby.  Poor little Mary! she was not
pretty: how could she be with that cold, hungry look, and those dirty
rags about her!   She was not good, for she had nothing but evil all her
days.--The air she had breathed in the cradle was poluted with the
breath of drunkenness and blasphemy.--Yet to Mrs. AUSTIN she was an
interesting child;--for she was gentle and affectionate, and her little
shut-up heart seemed to open and expand, when a smile of love fell on
it, as the convolvulus unfolds its blossoms to the rays of the rising
sun.

Mrs. AUSTIN washed her face and combed her hair.  She had pretty, yellow
curls and a fair complexion, and the kind lady, putting on her clean
apron, thought her really beautiful.  The woebegone expressions had
vanished from her pale face, and her blue eyes sparkled with delight.
She seemed for the first time to enjoy the bouyancy of spirit which
belong to children.  All day long she was busy as a bee, and when night
came, and her father's work was done, she went to Mrs. AUSTIN to have
her apron taken off.

"Would you like to keep it?" said the lady.

"O yes, ma'am," said the child, a tear coming into her eye," I should
like to keep it very much, but it's not mine."

"You may keep it then, dear, and be sure it is kept clean."

Sweet and happy were her thoughts that night as she tripped home by her
father's side, and when she lay down on her bed, a princess might have
envied her the beautiful dreams that filled her little head.  Thus day
after day passed away,--the work on Mr. AUSTIN's house went on, and not
less visible was the improvement among the WATSONs.  The children were
comfortably clothed and sent to school, and their mother, with renewed
health and courage, set about cleaning her cottage.  The broken windows
were repaired, and their home assumed an appearance of comfort which it
never wore before.

But the work was at last done and paid for; and poor WATSON's heart sank
within him as he left the house.  His appetite had been checked, and he
tasted the delights of sober industry;  he felt weak and dreaded to
leave the roof where he had seen so much purity and peace, and go forth
among his former associates.  He knew their power over him, and he
feared they might lead him into his old habits and make him again as
miserable as he had been.

It was with such thoughts as these that he sat by his fireside the
evening after he finished his work, when a gentleman entered and
respectfully inquired if he was Mr. WATSON the carpenter.  Being
answered in the affirmative, he said that Mr. AUSTIN had recommended him
as a good workman, and he wished to employ him for several months.

The offer was received with joy, and the reformed inebriate was again
placed under circumstances favorable to his good purposes; and not long
after he was indeed to join a temperance society, of which he has ever
since been a respectable member.

A year had passed away since the first commencement of our story, and
Mrs. EMEROY came one day to visit her friend Mrs. AUSTIN.  In the course
of the afternoon, a well-dressed and decent-looking woman came in,
leading a little child.  Great was the surprise of Mrs. EMEROY, on being
introduced to this woman, to find that she was no other than Mrs.
WATSON.  When she rose to depart, Mrs. AUSTIN said to her, "If yu can
spare little Mary, I wish you would send her here this afternoon;  I
want her to help me."

"Yes, indeed," was the reply, "Mary shall com, for she is never so happy
as when she is here."

When she was gone, Mrs. A. said to her friend, "You remember your fears
that we should have a good deal of trouble with these WATSONs, but ther
is not a family in the neighborhood that has afforded us more pleasure."

"This is strange, indeed.  Mrs. WATSON is so changed that I did not
recognize her.  I am sure I should know her in her former rags and
dirt."

"The whole family are changed since WATSON left off drinking.  They are
industrious and honest as any people among us; but you will soon see
little Mary, who is one of the sweetest children in the world."

"But tell me what has brought this mighty change to pass? Are you the
magician whose magic wand has brought about this great revolution?"

"I believe there is no magic employed," said Mrs. AUSTIN, smiling.  " We
have given them little except kind words and a good deal of kind
advice."

"Well," said Mrs. EMEROY, "you never had bad neighbors, and I don't
think you ever will have if you made good neighbors of the WATSONS."

THE END.

Transcriber: Marilyn Wright
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