Passing along this wider valley, and at the distance of about a mile from Mossdale, is a village we will call Gemsendorph, and which, seen from a distance, looks pretty and picturesque, with its church on an eminence, plots of cultivated land and trees interspersed amongst its cottages; but it only looks pleasing when viewed from a considerable distance; for, alas! any such idea is quickly dispelled on a nearer inspection.

But let us now in fancy accompany Mr Harebell, as, with his son Christopher, he enters the village and takes his way to one of the cottages, where resided a numerous family, comprising several grown-up sons and daughters, of whom Mr Harebell wished to engage one or more to work in the factory; the rather, as he had been informed that they were in great poverty, and therefore thought it would be doing them a benefit.

They had now entered the village; a narrow road, very uneven and dirty, being littered with refuse of various kinds. On each side of this narrow road were houses and vegetable gardens; but many of the gardens were in great disorder, and the houses irregularly built and awkwardly placed. One would stand so forward as to very inconveniently encroach upon the road, already too narrow; its next neighbour, on the contrary, retreated so much as to leave an untidy open space, which, instead of forming a small flowergarden or anything of that kind, served only as an additional receptacle for dirt and disorder, besides containing a pig-sty and dunghill; whilst the third house would present only a gable end jutting out into

A KIND EMPLOYER.

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the road; and the fourth would perhaps stand quite crookedly, as if the builder, unable to decide how to place it, had at length cast it down at random, neither lengthwise nor endwise to the road, but aslant. Some of the houses were only approachable by traversing a small yard, partly inclosed by a half broken-down wall or other fence, which intervened between them and the road, containing a stable or cow-shed, and perhaps also a pig-sty, and furnished in the centre with a sort of pit filled with manure, slightly covered over with branches of fir-the miasma from which was, of course, exceedingly unpleasant-and over which it was necessary to pass in order to gain the door of entrance.

It was to such a house as this that Mr Harebell and his son now approached, picking their way as best they could across the littered yard, and feeling at every step the fir branches give way under their weight, and their feet come into contact with the unpleasant compound beneath.

Mr Harebell might have done the errand by deputy, and so have spared himself the annoyance of this disagreeable visit, if he had only consulted his own inclination; but on former the like occasions, he had found that plan very unsuccessful, and, being a humane man, and therefore having really at heart to better the condition of the people-for it so happened that he was not now in want of work-people, the case being merely that if he had more, he could find them some employment;-consequently he had come to do the errand for himself, in order to see whether he might not succeed better.

An ill-clad, dejected, emaciated, and dirty-looking woman stood idly at the door. She might be about forty-eight, but looked more like seventy, and only just sufficiently made room, so that by brushing past her they could enter; whilst she told them—not very civilly-that her husband was within, and they could speak with him if such was their wish.

On entering, they found themselves in a low room, in which the air was very stifling, the flooring of boards quite black with dirt, the ceiling also black. In one corner was a stove, on which some kind of mess was simmering in a brown earthenware pan, and the apartment was filled with smoke from the green wood and fir branches burning in the stove; by the side of which-although the weather was very warmcowered the husband of the woman at the door, apparently a feeble old man, much bent with age, though in truth he was but little more than fifty. On the other side of the stove sat on a bench that was propped against the wall because one of the legs was gone, his clothing very ragged-a lubberly young man of seventeen or eighteen years of age, in perfect idleness; whilst a sickly-looking, ragged girl of thirteen or fourteen was rocking a cradle, in which lay a child of at least two years old; which, although of that age, could yet hardly walk, no one having taken the trouble to teach it, but, on the contrary, having kept it almost constantly in bed, to be out of the way, and, as much as possible, asleep; consequently, the poor little creature's limbs had no strength, and its head had grown quite disproportionately large.

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"Well, Holzhacker," said Mr Harebell, "I'm come to see whether any of your sons would like to work with me?"

"I don't know, I'm sure," he replied, in a weak, tremulous voice, and at the same time making a sign to his son to give the visitors places on the bench, which, however, the other only did by moving nearer to the end, and so making room for them beside him. But the bench was not securely enough propped to bear the weight of the three, and fell to the floor. Whereupon, as the young man was propping it up again, Mr Harebell could not forbear saying to him, though having noticed, when he saw him stand, that he, too, was ill-formed and looked weak :

"I should think, youngster, you might easily mend this bench."

At first, instead of making any reply, he only stared stupidly; but, after an instant, said:

"Who'll give me anything if I mend it? Will you?"*

Mr Harebell again addressed the father, saying: "Where are your other sons; and how are they occupied now?"

"The two eldest, and one of the girls, are gone to fetch fire-wood from the forest. Have been gone since morning. We're waiting supper for them. It's a long way to where they went; but I think they might have returned by now," he said, in a fretful tone.

* This conversation-as all others with the peasantry-was in provincial German.

But, just then, a loud rushing, scraping noise was heard, and such a cloud of dust arose in the road, as effectually to prevent Mr Harebell and Christopher from seeing from the open door of the house any object that might be approaching. But Holzhacker and his wife seemed to understand what the noise and dust betokened, for he said:

"They are coming now," whilst the woman left her watching at the door, turned inside, and began to stir the mess in the pan on the stove.

When the cloud of dust came nearer, however, what caused it was seen in the appearing of people dragging after them, with great labour, large bundles of wood and long trailing branches of trees bound together by ropes, and leaving them to scrape along the ground, thus causing the burden to be very heavy by the force of friction, and almost stifling themselves with dust. They were two young men, and a girl, a few years older than the one rocking the cradle. All three were haggard-looking, ragged and dirty, and seemed very much wearied, as, leaving their dusty burdens lying in the middle of the floor, nearly filling up the whole space having left only the longest branches in the yard outside they threw themselves on the bench, which had been vacated by Mr Harebell, Christopher, and Holzhacker's other son, and which again broke down, and was again set up.

"I will go now," said Mr Harebell, "for I should be sorry to interrupt you in your supper; but before I leave, I should like to know whether you and these young people would not think it better to have such