ESTHER SIMMONDS.

(Continued from page 8.)

CHAPTER II.

"Is he not thine own,

Thyself in miniature, thy flesh, thy bone?
And hop'st thou not ('tis ev'ry father's hope)
That since thy strength must with thy years elope,
And thou wilt need some comfort, to assuage
Health's last farewell, a staff of thine old age,
That then, in recompense of all thy cares,
Thy child shall show respect to thy gray hairs,
Befriend thee, of all other friends bereft,
And give thy life its only cordial left?
Aware, then, how much danger intervenes
To compass that good end, forecast the means.
His heart, now passive, yields to thy command,
Secure it thine, its key is in thine hand."

COWPER.

AFTER the circumstances narrated in the last chapter, away stalked Mrs. Simmonds, more angry now than she was before, straight up to the school-room, where she found Mrs. Short, with some few girls who had not yet left school, putting the room in order, and setting out the copy books for the afternoon's writing.

Mrs. Short saw her coming, and evidently, from her appearance, in a great passion. She, therefore, came forward to meet her, in order, if possible, to pacify her; not doubting but that Esther had carried home a false statement of facts, and that her mother was come under a wrong impression. Before, however, she had time to speak, Mrs. Simmonds broke out :-" Pray, Mrs. Short, what do you mean by suffering some of your scholars to tear my daughter's gown, and then punishing her for it? I know well how it is; I have often heard of it. You favour some, and spite others. You let that nasty little Elizabeth Smith do what she likes, and then, when mischief is done, you go and punish my Esther for it. I can tell you, ma'am, my daughter is not to be treated

CHRISTIAN MAGAZINE, No. II.

B

But

in this way.

I'll not let her stop at a school where such abominable practices exist. She has learned no good

since she's been here, that I'm sure; and here she shall come no longer; so you and Mr. Clare may go and pick up scholars elsewhere if you please, for none of mine are for you, that I can tell you." Here Mrs. Simmonds stopped, for she had come to the end of her breath, and was, therefore, much against her will, compelled for a time to stay her speech, till replenished for a further attack.

Mrs. Short was certainly rather puzzled what to do, for she had never been placed in such a position before, and felt that to argue in such a case, before her scholars, was unbecoming; and argue she knew she must, so far at least as to explain what she had done, which, in Mrs. Simmonds's present state, would be sure to provoke a reply. However, nothing else was to be done; so she told her the whole matter from beginning to end, exactly as it had happened,-all, however, to no purpose. Mrs. Simmonds had determined in her own mind that her daughter was right, that she had been ill-treated, and would not therefore be pacified. She again made an attack on Mrs. Short, worked herself up to a more violent passion than she had been in before, and concluded by walking out and slamming the door after her.

Some few days after the above circumstances had taken place, Mr. Clare, as clergyman of the parish and manager of the school, having heard from Mrs. Short what had occurred, called upon Mrs. Simmonds at her own house, to remonstrate with her on her conduct towards the mistress of the school, and to admonish her as a parent on the bad course she was proceeding upon as regarded her daughter. Mrs. Simmonds was at home, and received the vicar in rather a doubtful way; there was evidently something in her mind which she was not prepared to explain, and yet could not conceal.

After wishing her good day, and enquiring how her husband and children were, Mr. Clare commenced by asking what she had done with Esther. She is gone,"

was the reply, "to the school at St. James's. I took her away from your school because she was ill-used there. Mrs. Short is not fit to be mistress; she favours some, and spites others, and I was determined poor Esther should not be abused there any longer." "You have done wrong," observed the vicar; "if your daughter was really ill-used there, and you have sufficient grounds for saying that Mrs. Short is unfit for her situation, you should have made your complaint to me, as the manager of the school, and clergyman of the parish, and I would have taken care that the subject was properly investigated. But, as the matter is, you have not only assumed an office which does not belong to you, but have accused Mrs. Short of faults which she has not committed. I have made full enquiries as to the circumstances which led to your daughter being punished, and am quite satisfied that the mistress acted as she ought to have done. She detected your daughter in a wilful lie, aggravated by other circumstances of a heinous nature, and she therefore very properly punished her. In no respect that I can see, is she to blame. Now, look into your own conduct, and you will see, I think, that such cannot be said in your case. Your daughter refused to submit to the punishment appointed by her mistress, ran away from school, and found in you, her mother, the defender of her faults. In this I cannot but see great cause of blame; and, depend upon it, Mrs. Simmonds, you may live to repent of having acted as you have done. When children are defended in their faults by their parents, and are taught insubordination to those who have the care of their education, in all human probability the parents' illadvised conduct will fall in tenfold measure upon their own heads."

Mrs. Simmonds heard out all that the vicar had to say in a dogged and sulky way, aud then disrespectfully answered,--" Well! I suppose I may please myself where I send my children; one school is as good as another, and if I like to send Esther to St. James's school instead of the parish school, I dont see how you or any body else

can blame me." I do not blame you, Mrs. Simmonds, for sending your children to what school you please, nor do I say that one school is not as good as another. Doubtless, parents ought to be very careful as to the school to which they send their children, and send them to that which they consider best; although, of course, other things the same, your own parish school, under the superintendence of your own parish clergyman, is that which has the strongest claims upon you. But it is not this that I complain of; it is your intemperate and disrespectful conduct towards the mistress of the school in which your daughter was, and your short-sighted, illjudged, not to say unprincipled and unnatural conduct towards your child in encouraging her in her faults, screening her from the punishment she deserved, and leading her to suppose that insubordination to those set over her is not a sin. I believe St. James's is a very good school, the master and mistress well fitted for their situation, and I know that the clergyman, Mr. Gray, is very attentive to the children, and careful that they are properly instructed in the principles of religion. It is not, therefore, of the school that I complain; it is of your conduct throughout the whole business, which has been foolish, short-sighted, and unbecoming. Good morning, Mrs. Simmonds. I trust that you will take in good part what I have said to you; it is my duty to speak plainly, and I hope that if any similar complaints should come from your daughter, you will act in a less hasty way than you have done now."

Time went on. Mrs. Simmonds attended the parish church for some time after her daughter left the school, but she did not like it. She often thought when the vicar was preaching upon the duty of parents, or upon obedience, or upon passion, that he was preaching, as she termed it, against her; so by degrees her attendance became more rare, until at last it altogether ceased, and she took a pew at St. James's, where she for a time occasionally attended. On her leaving the parish church, Mr. Clare called upon her, thinking it his duty to do so,

and enquired the cause of her absence lately from church. Her reply was that she went then to Mr. Gray's church, and as one church was as good as another, she supposed there was not much harm in that. The vicar felt distressed, although he had often heard the same argument used before, and had little reason to suppose that Mrs. Simmonds would use a better. He endeavoured to explain to her that, although St. James's was as good as the parish church, yet that she ought properly to attend one, rather than the other. Were you in St. James's district," said he, "of course you ought to attend St. James's church, as the bishop, the overlooker of this diocese, has given the cure of souls in St. James's district to the curate of St. James's church; were you, therefore, in that district, you should go to that church. But the case is not so; you live in my district—that part of the parish, namely, which the bishop has not assigned to another curate; when, therefore, you leave the parish church, you absent yourself from my ministry, and despise the directions of the Church, which you well know no one should do."

Some short time, about six months, after this lastmentioned visit of Mr. Clare, Esther having behaved ill at St. James's, was punished for it, and having complained again to her mother of the mistress's ill-treatment, was removed from that school, and sent to another which the Independents had lately set up in a neighbouring street to that, in which her father lived. Here she remained for about two years, doing much as she pleased, for strict discipline was not a very important point in their system of education. However, one day, when the mistress had to reprimand her pretty severely for beating some of the smaller children, Esther thought fit to take up her bonnet and shawl, and, in a very unceremonious and haughty manner, to take her leave of this school. The mistress called on her mother and attempted to pacify her, admitted that she had been rather severe with Esther, but would be more easy for the future. All to no purpose; Esther had made up her mind that