How carefully ought young people to guard against the gratification of evil passions; for, however artfully a plan may be conceived, however secretly carried into execution, sooner or later, detection always follows crime.
It is always dangerous to listen to the advice of those whose education and pursuits are greatly beneath us; or to make confidants and companions of servants. Their offers of service to a young man, against the wishes of his parent, cannot be sincere; if they will deceive their master, think not they will spare his son; but, taking advantage of his weakness, they will not only render him a tool to their own vices, but too often prove his final ruin.
By nature, George Hope possessed good abilities; and he had arrived at that age when he could scarcely be called a child; and he was therefore perfectly conscious of the sin he was going to commit. All his faults, more or less, might be traced up to his constant association with this artful Simpson, who, bad himself, took a pleasure in perverting the minds of the young and inexperienced; falsely considering that their profligacy would be an excuse for his own.
But Simpson had his own malicious disposition to gratify, in this plan against the peace of young Shirley; and he had formed a scheme so artful and atrocious, that he flattered himself it would be sure of success, and turn all suspicion from the real authors of it.
Just across Mrs. Shirley’s meadow stood a small cottage, which was occupied by a poor Irishman, who gained an honest livelihood by working as a jobbing gardener; and Patrick Lary was so well respected, that he was employed by all the gentlemen in that neighbourhood, and by Mr. Hope, among the rest.
Lary, though a good-natured, hard-working fellow, had one great vice, which was being too fond of strong drink; and often, when the labour of the day was over, Paddy would go to the village, and set in the public houses; and, when betrayed in liquor, he would swear, and play a thousand mad pranks on those around, and often had money to pay for the windows he broke coming home; and, though he was very sorry the next day, when sober, for the mischief he had done the preceding evening, he had not resolution enough to avoid the cause.
Once Lary had carelessly levelled his drollery against Simpson, which so roused the malevolent disposition of the groom, that he had from that hour viewed Lary in the light of a bitter enemy, and vowed, the first opportunity that offered, to repay with interest the Irishman’s foolish joke.
He knew that Lary would be absent that night at a large fair which was held at a considerable town, a few miles off; and the poor Irishman had not fortitude to resist a temptation that beset him in the shape of a fair.
Simpson remembered that Lary kept his gardening tools in a small outhouse, which he used for a workshop, and that all his implements were fully marked with his name.
The place was easy of access, and Simpson soon procured from thence two small hatchets, such as gardeners use in lopping small branches, that resist the strength of a knife; and, after Mr. Hope’s family were in bed, he repaired to the place appointed, and, raising the ladder with as little noise as possible, gave the promised signal.