Evenings at Home; Or, The Juvenile Budget Opened

by John Aikin; Mrs. Barbauld

E. I am one, sir.

Mr. B. That’s well. Though we may live in loghouses at first, we shall want brick or stone work for chimneys, and hearths, and ovens; so there will be employment for a mason. But if you can make bricks and burn lime, too, you will be still more useful.

E. I will try what I can do, sir.

Mr. B. No man can do more. I engage you. Who is next?

F. I am a shoemaker, sir.

Mr. B. And shoes we cannot well do without. But can you make them, like Eumæus in the Odyssey, out of a raw hide? for I fear we shall get no leather.

F. But I can dress hides, too.

Mr. B. Can you?—then you are a clever fellow, and I will have you, though I give you double wages.

G. I am a tailor, sir.

Mr. B. Well—though it will be some time before we want holyday-suits, yet we must not go naked; so there will be work for the tailor But you are not above mending and botching, I hope, for we must not mind patched clothes while we work in the woods.