When the boat must sail without him, 66 Yet, though we are tried and troubled, Till we meet him in the harbour -Tract Magazine. HOW I CHANGED MY OPINION. NCE I was all for everybody in the world being equal. It was at a time when there was a great cry for "Liberty, equality, and fraternity!" though half the people that talked so loudly about it didn't know what they meant, I reckon-at least, I know I didn't. My fancy was, that there ought to be no rich and no poor, but all should share and share alike. The more stupid I for taking such a notion into my head, when I might have seen that if all the men and women in the land had been put on a level one day, the very next day some would have risen above the level, and some would have sunk below it. But I didn't see it so; a good reason why --I had shut my eyes. And now I'll tell you how I had them opened. I was at that time in pretty good circumstances. I had a tolerably fair trade (as a working mechanic), and earned a tolerably fair living. I had no" encumbrances," as wife and children are sometimes called; and I fed pretty well. I fancy this good feeding helped to make me saucy, for that's what I was. One night there was a public meeting in a large room in ur part of London. It was about some political quetion-no matter what; and being pretty deep, as I thought, in politics, I went to it, and got a front seat. Among the speakers that got up was a youngish man, who had a sort of hesitation in his way of speaking. He had another drawback-or so I thought-in being a rich man, though he was a man of business, and had a counting-house not far from where I worked. I knew him very well, though I don't suppose he knew me. Well, his being rich was enough for me; and, when he got up to speak, I made up my mind that I shouldn't agree with what he said; and I did not, for it vent against my notions of equality. However, I bore for a little while, but presently he said something that put my feathers up, and I broke in upon him with a eering laugh, and called out, "If you've got nothing better to tell us than that, you had better sit down. Who are you, I should like to know, to be setting yourself up to lecture working men, when you never did a day's hard work in your life, and can't talk plain either?" I am sorry now to say that my insolence (for it was insolence) got clapped and cheered by some noisy fellows in the room; and the gentleman quietly said to the meeting," If you do not wish to hear me, it will be the easiest thing in the world for me to take that good fellow's advice;" so down he sat. He looked me full in the face as he did so; "and," said he, “I think I shall know you again, friend." "And welcome," said I; "I don't owe you anything, I think, anyhow." After a bit the meeting broke up, and I went to my lodgings, thinking what a clever chap I was. I didn't know that I had run my head against a post, blinded by self-conceit. A year or two after the time of this meeting, things had taken a turn with me. I had an illness which threw me out of work; and, when I got better, it was in the depth of winter, and no work was to be got, for trade was bad, and hundreds of men in my line had nothing to do. As to money, I had none; and as to friends, my old companions, who used to praise me and my equality notions up to the skies, were just nowhere. How I lived on for weeks I can hardly tell now, only that one thing after another went to the pawn-shop, till I had only the one suit of clothes I stood up in, and shabby enough that was, you may be sure. I had managed, however, in this way, to pay my lodgings; but that could not go on much longer, and my landlady had given me notice to quit. As to a regular meal, I hadn't had one for days and days How I managed to keep life in me was in this way. Not far from my lodgings some benevolent persons had established a soup-kitchen, where poor people might get a quart of good meat soup for twopence, or for a ticket for which twopence had been paid. Good soup I call it now, and so it was; but when I first heard of the scheme I made game of it, called the soup" cheap and nasty," and said that was one of the ways the rich had of doing the poor, making believe to help them, but taking precious good care that it should not cost them (the rich) anything. When, however, I was getting over my illness, and was out of work, and out of pocket, too, I found out the meaning of the proverb about hungry dogs eating dirty puddings." In other words, I went, day after day, to the soup-kitchen, and had my twopennyworth, and was glad enough to get it. Many a time that quart of soup was all I got in the twenty-four hours; and, if it had not been for that, I should have starved outright. 66 But at last, even that failed me. There came a day when I had not got my twopence, and had no means of raising another penny; and the next day I should have to leave my lodgings. I remember quite well, it was a bitter cold afternoon. The snow was thick on the roofs of houses and on the ground, but I hadn't a fire to sit by, and I was mad with hunger. "I'll go and walk it off," thought I, and I put on my old hat and went out. There were comfortable carriages passed me in the street, and comfortable-looking people, all wrapped up in coats, and cloaks, and warm shawls, and wrappers, and muffs, passed me on the pavement. "Ah," muttered I to myself; "the bloated aristocrats!" -this is what I said-" much they care! It wouldn't be so if everybody had their rights. If there was proper equality in the world, I shouldn't- -"But I couldn't carry on the argument in my mind just then. dizzy with starvation and frozen up with cold. I was How it came about I don't know. I know I did not mean it; but somehow my feet took me to the soupkitchen, and I was just going in when I remembered that I hadn't a halfpenny in my pocket. I was too faint to go any further, so I leaned up against the open doorway, thinking my sickness would go off after a bit. There was quite a crowd round the door; and, as I looked in, there was a crowd inside too. Those inside were being served with the hot soup; some of them devouring it where they stood, and others were bringing it out to carry home, some in cracked and broken jugs and pitchers, some in basins and wooden bowls. Those outside were in the same condition as myself; they had no money and no tickets, and were looking with eager, wolfish eyes and famished, gaunt-like cheeks, on those who were inside, and coming out. Just at this moment there was a sort of movement in the crowd on the pavement, caused by a policeman saying, "Make room there; don't block up the road!" and then came walking right through it a young lady in a fashionable hat and feathers, and leaning on the arm of a gentleman, as comfortably clad as herself. One look was enough. I knew him. He was the speaker I had interrupted at the meeting. I turned away with a scowl in my heart, if there wasn't one on my face. I didn't want to see any more of him; and I was in no mind that he should see me in such a state. Yet, as I pretended to be staring in at the door of the soup-kitchen, I couldn't help knowing what passed alongside of me-how that the young wife (for she was his wife, newly married) whispered somethir.g to her husband; how he stopped short and put his hand in his pocket; how one and another and another of the famishing wretches saw the motion, and made up to him with frantic gestures and imploring words; how then, instead of giving money, he and his young wife turned sharp round and went straight into the soup-kitchen, and (as I made out afterwards) bought and paid for a basin of soup for themselves; and how, when this was done, the gentleman laid down five shillings and had it |